28/02/2010
Saudi Arabia's imports of Indian goods is up to 18 billion riyals in 2008
Ibn Rushd Field in Saudi Aramco
A report issued by the Banque Saudi Fransi declared yesterday that the Kingdom is considered as the first supplier of oil to India and the fourth trading partner, since Saudi Arabia's imports of Indian goods is up to 18 billion riyals in 2008, achieving an increase of six times compared with 2000, which made India the sixth largest source of Saudi imports by 12, 4% of the total Saudi imports from Asia. The report, issued on the occasion of the visit of the Indian Prime Minister to the Kingdom, scheduled today for the first time in 28 years, "the Kingdom is a major source of the Indian income, due to the Indian community transfers in the Kingdom, which is one of the largest foreign communities.
The report pointed out that it is possible that Indian geographic reliance on the Gulf oil will increase in the coming years due to the limited prospects for the domestic energy production, with a high share of the Kingdom from the Indian imports since 1990. In 2008 the Indian shares of Saudi oil exports increased up to 7.3% compared with 2.5% in 1990, also the imports amount from Saudi Arabia increased to 4.2% versus 1.1% in the same period.
The report pointed an increase in the Saudi exports to India nearly up to seven-times between 2000 and 2008, making India as the fourth largest export in Asia after Japan, China and South Korea.
India is the fourth largest importer of the Saudi oil after China and the United States and Japan, noting that the Gulf countries provides most of India's oil needs, quarter only from Saudi Arabia, the rest of suppliers are Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, UAE and Yemen. While Qatar provides about 5 million tons per year of liquefied natural gas to India, this amount rose up to 7, 5 million tons in 2009.
In the fiscal year 2008-2009, Indian imports of crude oil reached to 2.5 million barrels per day, more than the previous year by 5%. The report described India as the center of economic power in the world, as its started to realize its economic and diplomatic relations with the Kingdom will flourish, Meanwhile, the Kingdom will gain an important global location as the first energy producer and the largest economy in the Middle East
With the economic growth expected between 7 to 8% annually in the next two decades, India will face major challenges in terms of rapidly rising demand for energy. The Energy security sources is essential for India as in the case of China, also it is an important factor to strengthen the relations with the Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia. According to the reports, India will seek to attract more foreign investments as it faces a shortage in electricity, note that 40% of its population are still denied of it by the World Bank.
