IOCL agrees for oil supply contracts with Petrobras, Ecopetrol

State-owned Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. has inked long-term oil supply contracts with Brazil’s Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) and Colombia’s state-run Ecopetrol SA, boosting the country’s energy security.

The contract with Petrobras for 1.7 million metric tonne per annum (mmtpa) was inked during India’s petroleum and natural gas secretary Pankaj Jain visit to Brazil last week where he also met Petrobras CEO Caio Paes de Andrade. The long-term contract with Ecopetrol was inked in Singapore.

This is the first ever term contract between an Indian company and Petrobras and comes in the backdrop of state-run Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) subsidiary Bharat PetroResources Limited’s (BPRL) plans to invest $1.6 billion to develop BM-SEAL-11 project in Brazil.

India’s Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) in July had approved this additional investment in the project which is expected to see production from 2026-27, wherein BPRL has 40% participating interest and Petrobras with 60% participating interest is the operator.