KUWAIT expects to increase crude oil exports to India, its third-biggest market after Japan and South Korea, in the next few months, Nasser Al Mudhaf, managing director for international marketing at Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, says.

Mudhaf gives no figures but says he had recently visited New Delhi for talks on crude contracts with Indian refiners and potential increases in volumes to the Indian market.

Opec oil producer Kuwait exported an average 1.7 million barrels per day (mbpd) of crude in 2011, of which 1.4 mbpd was sold into the Asia Pacific market and the rest to the US and Europe, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

India, the world’s fourth-largest energy consumer, is also a major buyer of Iranian crude, and New Delhi has said it will continue to buy oil from Iran despite payment difficulties as a result of US financial restrictions on transfers to Iran.

However, India and other major Asian consumers have been scouting around for alternative supplies from other Middle Eastern countries in the event of supply disruptions from Iran in the wake of EU sanctions on the import of Iranian oil and US financial sanctions against Tehran.

India currently imports roughly 370,000 bpd of crude from Iran and the government is negotiating a new payments mechanism with Tehran, with payments currently routed through Turkey. Indian state-owned refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) is seeking to double its crude imports from Saudi Arabia as part of moves to diversify supplies away from Iran.

Other Indian state refiners also are understood to be exploring options to increase volumes under existing term contracts with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other Middle Eastern suppliers.