On Wednesday, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) signed a deal to increase oil imports from Rosneft as it looks to take advantage of discounted oil available after the Ukraine war.

“Rosneft and Indian Oil Corporation have signed a long-term agreement to increase oil supplies and diversify India’s oil grades significantly,” the Russian company said in a statement.

It does not state the volume. The IOC signed a deal in December 2021 to buy up to 2 million tonnes of crude oil from Rosneft in 2022.

Rosneft said the deal was signed during a visit to India by the company’s chief executive, Igor Sechin.

“Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin and IOC Chairman Shrikant Madhav Vaidya signed the agreement in the presence of India’s Oil and Gas Minister Hardeep S. Puri,” said. “The parties also discussed ways to expand cooperation between Rosneft and Indian companies across the energy industry’s value chain, including the possibility of paying in national currencies.” Some buyers in the west shunned Russian oil after Moscow invaded Ukraine, therefore, sold at a discounted price. India has sporadically bought Russian oil until February 2022, boosting imports from Moscow. India is the biggest buyer of Russia’s benchmark Urals grade crude in March.

Russian oil sales to India surged more than 20-fold last year, Russia’s deputy prime minister said on Tuesday.

“Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin was on a working visit to India during which he met with Indian government officials and the heads of some of the country’s largest oil and gas companies,” the statement said.

During the talks, ongoing joint projects between Rosneft and its Indian partners, including Sakhalin-1, Taas-Yuryakh and Vankorneft, were discussed without details.

“The parties also noted a significant increase in turnover between Russia and India,” it said.

According to the latest statistics from the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Russia has become one of India’s top five trading partners for the first time in history. The trade volume between the two countries will reach $38.4 billion in 2022.

“As a result, the goal set by our country’s leaders to increase turnover to $30 billion by 2025 has been achieved ahead of schedule,” the head of Rosneft said.

Minister Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted that he “witnessed the signing of a long-term agreement between the IOC and Rosneft to increase the volume and diversification of crude oil supplies from Russia to India.” There is growing cooperation between the two countries in the energy sector,” he said.

During the meeting with Sechin, he said the two discussed the “special and priority strategic partnership” between the two countries. “Existing areas of cooperation were reviewed, including the implementation of ongoing joint projects.” “The substantial growth in bilateral energy trade was welcomed, and new opportunities for cooperation across the energy value chain were discussed,” he added.