Indian Oil Minister: We will buy oil from all sources that provide it “at the lowest possible prices”

India’s Oil Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri, told the media that his country would buy oil from all available sources at the “lowest possible prices”.

India has been buying crude oil from Russia, now its biggest supplier, at discounts since the West imposed restrictions on imports from Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine last year.

“We are very clear with ourselves that we will buy oil from anywhere as long as it is delivered to the point of import in our ports at the lowest possible price,” the minister said.

India, the world’s third-largest oil importer and consumer, gets more than 80 percent of its oil needs from abroad.

In response to a question about trade exchange in rupees with the UAE, the minister said that transactions in the oil sector are at a “minimum level”.

The two countries agreed to facilitate trade in rupees instead of dollars in July.

“We have an arrangement to deal in rupees and dirhams with the UAE, but transactions in the oil sector are at a minimum,” the minister said.