Kuwait eyes Iran's position for supplying crude to India

Even as India is clandestinely reducing its import of crude oil from sanctions-hit Iran, Kuwait today stressed on its position of being a "reliable supplier" of the commodity with increased production.

Kuwait is aiming to increase its oil production to 4 million barrels per day (BPD) from 2014. As a result, the Arab nation is now heavily relying on India to buy more from the region. Kuwait’s daily output of oil has exceeded 3 million BPD in 2013.

This is the first head of government-level visit from Kuwait in last 10 years. Main purpose of the visit is to get an “assurance from India that it will not only continue but increase its purchases (of crude) from Kuwait,” an official told Business Standard.

The official, who refused to be identified, also said that with Iran facing Western sanctions, the Gulf countries have geared up to opening up their oil and gas sector to foreign investments in the upstream as well as in the downstream sector in order to enhance production and recovery to sustain themselves in the world oil market by penetrating into the emerging economies like India and China.

“We look forward in having desired accomplishments in future and strong cooperation between our two countries,” Kuwaiti Prime Minister Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah said here today while addressing the business chambers – FICCI, CII and ASSOCHAM.

Kuwait is a major supplier of India's energy needs with almost 10% petrol imports sourced from the Gulf country. It is currently the second largest oil supplier within the Gulf countries after Saudi Arabia.

According to Mridul Kumar, joint secretary (Gulf), ministry of external affairs, Kuwait is investing $100 billion in reforming their oil and gas sector. He said the visit will make sure that India and Kuwait take their relationship beyond being buyer and seller.

S.No	Name of Agreement/MoU	Signatories	Remarks
1	Agreement Between the Government of the Republic of India and the State of Kuwait  on the  Transfer of Sentenced Persons	India: Sushil Kumar Shinde, Minister of Home Affairs

Kuwait: Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs The Agreement aims to enable the transfer of sentenced persons of both the countries to serve their remaining sentences of imprisonment or any other form of punishment in their own country. 2 MoU between the Foreign Service Institute(FSI), Ministry of External Affairs of the Republic of India and the Saud N. Al-Sabah Kuwait Diplomatic  Institute(KDI), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, of the State of Kuwait for Cooperation In Mutual Beneficial Area of Activities. India: Salman Khurshid, External Affairs Minister Kuwait: Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs The MoU aims at promoting cooperation between the FSI and KDI, including exchange of information on structure and content of training programmes, exchange of trainees, students, faculty members, experts and researchers. 3  MOU on Cooperation in the field of Sports & Youth Affairs Between the Government of the Republic of India and the Government of the State of Kuwait India: Jitendra Singh, MOS(IC) for Youth Affairs and Sports

Kuwait: Anas Al-Saleh, Minister of commerce and industry The MoU aims at promoting and strengthening bilateral cooperation between the two countries in the field of Sports & Youth through institutional exchanges particularly through exchange of youth and sports teams in various disciplines. 4 Executive Programme for Cultural and Information Exchanges Between the Government of the Republic of India and the Government of the State of Kuwait for the Years 2013- 16 India: Ravindra Singh, Secretary (Culture)
Kuwait: Khalid S. Al-jarallah, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs The Executive Programme aims at enhancing cultural cooperation between National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters of Kuwait and Indian Lalit Kala Akademi, between Rampur Raza Library, Rampur India and Dar Al-Athar Al-Islamiya Kuwait, exchange of TV and radio programmes for better understanding of the culture of each other’s countries, increased participation in training programmes and courses and symposia of mutual interest in the field of libraries and information, visit of experts and archaeologists, cooperation on management and conservation of cultural heritage sites. 5 Educational Exchange Program Between the Government of India and the Government of the State of Kuwait on Cooperation in Education And Learning for the Years 2013-16 India: Ashok Thakur, Secretary

Kuwait: Khalid S. Al-jarallah, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs The Executive Programme aims at strengthening bilateral cooperation in the field of education and learning by exchange of students, researchers in the field of education and learning, and academicians and specialists in the field of general education, adult education, special needs education, conducting research seminars in the fields of science and education, exchange of books, publications, audio-visual materials, microfiche and archives resources and other information  to assist researchers in their fields of operations.  

India-Kuwait bilateral trade has doubled in the past three years reaching $17 billion in 2012-2013, the bulk of which is due to import of hydrocarbons by India.

India, on the other hand, is also looking at increasing its exports to Kuwait by diversifying the number of products such as pharmaceuticals, food items, sports goods, leather products, medicinal equipments and power equipments.

Commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma urged Kuwait’s support in concluding the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). He sought greater participation from Kuwaiti companies in the development of upstream and downstream oil projects in India.