As state-run Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL) works to expand crude procurement from non-Russian sources, India’s oil import policy is clearly being reevaluated.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas announced on Friday that BPCL would double the amount of its FY26 contract by purchasing 12 million barrels of crude oil from Brazil’s state-owned Petrobras in FY27, valued at approximately $780 million.
The term contract, which will be signed at India Energy Week (IEW) 2026 next week, coincides with Indian refiners rethinking their import plans to counteract a slow cutback in Russian crude supply in the face of increasing sanctions and growing compliance issues.
The agreement becomes more significant in light of the unstable world oil market, where Russian supplies have slowed as a result of recent geopolitical events involving Venezuela and new US sanctions.
In an effort to balance risk, freight economics, and execution assurance, Indian refiners, which significantly increased their intake of Russian crude after the conflict in Ukraine, are now purchasing more oil from suppliers in West Asia, Africa, and South America.
The four-day India Energy Week 2026, which starts on January 27, is anticipated to feature a number of commercial deals, including the Petrobras contract. This would frame the event as a venue for tangible economic achievements rather than only policy debates.
Furthermore, NRL and Oil India Ltd. (OIL) will enter into a preliminary agreement with TotalEnergies to procure LNG in order to fulfill their future fuel needs. Separately, BPCL’s upstream division, Bharat PetroResources Ltd (BPRL), will sign a memorandum of understanding with Shell to investigate prospects for purchasing shares in oil and gas properties around the world.
The India-Arab Energy Dialogue, the India-Japan Energy Roundtable, the India-Iceland Roundtable on geothermal energy and CCUS, and discussions with USIBC and USISPF to improve India-US energy trade and investment links are among the other important engagements.
