As per report the Prime Minister's office tweeted “The Saudi energy minister had a productive meeting with modi and the two leaders "talked about efforts to improve energy cooperation between the two nations". The meeting assumes significance as the two countries have decided to move ahead on the ambitious west coast refinery project in Raigarh in maharashtra which will involve investments from Saudi oil giant Aramco, UAE's Abu Dhabi National oil Company and Indian public sector oil firms.
Furthermore india, the world's third largest oil consumer, imports 83 per cent of its oil needs. saudi arabia is its second biggest supplier after iraq and it sold 40.33 million tonnes of crude oil to india in 2018-19 fiscal, when the country had imported 207.3 million tonnes of oil. modi had arrived in Riyadh late on monday night. This is his second visit to the Gulf Kingdom. On his first visit in 2016, king salman conferred Saudi Arabia's highest civilian award on him. The Crown prince visited india in february 2019, giving a further fillip to the bilateral ties.
Perhaps India's ties with saudi arabia have been on an upswing over the last few years. India's bilateral trade with saudi arabia was at $27.48 billion in 2017-18, making the desert country its fourth largest trading partner
