This is the first time any Indian refiner has signed an annual contract since the country in 2017 began importing crude oil from the US.

State-run IOC had previously purchased U.S. oil from spot markets and signed a mini-term deal in August to buy 6 million barrels of U.S. oil between November to January.

The state-owned company is seeking a partial cargo for delivery on Feb 25, with offers due by Feb 11, one of the sources said.

For the marketing division investment, R Sitharthan, executive director and head for IndianOil (Tamil Nadu & Puducherry), signed an MoU with the state government for an investment of `7,941 crore in the next five years.

IOC is already in market to raise USD 900 million through a bonds issue and is raising an equivalent sum through a syndicated loan for meeting its working capital requirements.

The nation’s consumption of petroleum products rose 4.1 percent to about 210 million tons, the Oil Ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell said Friday. Growth improved from the preceding year’s 2.7 percent expansion, the slowest pace since 2013, as consumption was severely affected by a cash ban that crippled economic activity.

While, the government had in October 2018 approved the transfer 50 acres of land to the IOC against differential rent spread over the 30 year lease period,

Indian Oil's chairman Sanjiv Singh said that Iran has not ruled out participating in the expansion at Chennai Petroleum Corp Ltd, a south India-based 20,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery.