India and Venezuela sought to boost their ties in the energy sector on Thursday, with New Delhi saying that Caracas sees it as a preferred partner in the sector at a time when global oil supplies have been disrupted by the Middle East crisis.

Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez is visiting India with a large team of ministers and held talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday.

Discussions between the two sides focused on cooperation in both upstream and downstream energy projects, Rudrendra Tandon, Secretary (East) in the Indian foreign ministry, told a media briefing after the talks.

“We are working with a government that is friendly, that wants a partnership with India,” Tandon said. “We want to reciprocate that. Venezuela has traditionally been a close friend. We have collaborated very closely at the international level, so we are just going back to normal.”

Venezuela sees India as a “preferred partner” in the energy sector and Rodriguez would visit oil refining facilities in India during her visit that ends on June 7, Tandon said.

She is also expected to meet top Indian energy industry leaders in financial capital Mumbai, Reuters reported.

India is a key buyer of Venezuelan oil

India was the second-largest importer of Venezuelan oil in May with purchases of 427,000 barrels per day, second only to the United States, Reuters reported.

India’s Reliance Industries has emerged as one of the three largest buyers of Venezuelan crude in recent months. Venezuela is on course to become the fourth-largest supplier of oil to India in May, Kpler data showed.

Rodriguez’s visit comes as India, the world’s third-largest oil importer and consumer, grapples with supply disruptions caused by the US-Israeli war with Iran, which has virtually shut the Strait of Hormuz a key conduit that carried more than 40 per cent of the South Asian nation’s crude oil imports.

India had stopped buying Venezuelan oil last year, after US President Donald Trump authorised a 25pc discretionary tariff on countries buying crude from the South American nation. It resumed purchases when sanctions were eased in February following a flagship oil supply pact between Washington and Caracas.

Under the agreement, reached after the US capture of President Nicolas Maduro in January, Washington controls proceeds from Venezuelan oil sales through bank accounts administered by the Treasury Department, with commercial terms also following its guidance.