MOSCOW, February 5 (WNM/TASS) – Rosneft and Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) have signed a contract to supply up to 2 million tonnes of oil to India via the port of Novorossiysk by the end of 2020.

Moreover, India has made a principal decision to participate in the Vostok Oil project, Russia’s oil major Rosneft said. The terms are planned to be negotiated shortly.

The contract was signed as part of the visit of Chief Executive Officer of Rosneft Igor Sechin to New Delhi. During that visit, a working meeting was also held with Indian minister of oil and gas Dharmendra Pradhan.

The sides focused on ongoing joint projects of Rosneft and Indian companies during the meeting, including Sakhalin-1, Taas-Yuryakh, the Vankor cluster (a consortium of Indian companies owns 49% in the Vankor cluster field), Far East LNG, and Nayara Energy.

The plan is to develop Lodochnoe, Tagul and Vankor fields within the Vostok Oil project. The Payakhskoye field that belongs to Neftegazholding of Eduard Khudainatov may also become part of the project. Companies have asked for budget subsidies amounting to 2.6 trillion rubles ($40.7 billion) to implement the project.

Rosneft said earlier that reserves and potential resources of the Vostok Oil project exceed 37 billion barrels of oil equivalent.