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Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Shri Hardeep Singh Puri visited Mauritius from 20 to 21 August 2026 and called on Prime Minister Dr Navinchandra Ramgoolam on 20 August.
India and Mauritius exchanged a Government-to-Government MoU for cooperation in the oil and gas sector, covering petroleum products supply, training and capacity building for Mauritian officials, and biofuels cooperation.
Alongside it, Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) and the State Trading Corporation (STC) of Mauritius signed a five-year Sales and Purchase agreement under which IOCL will supply Mauritius's entire import requirement of Motor Spirit, High Speed Diesel and Aviation Turbine Fuel.
The release describes it as the first long-term supply agreement concluded by an Indian public sector oil marketing company outside South Asia in recent years.
The Minister attended the ground-breaking of India Oil (Mauritius) Ltd's 27.5 TMT bunker marine fuel storage facility at Mer Rouge, Port Louis, and on 21 August jointly witnessed the launch of Mauritius's Biofuels Country Landscape Policy framework.
A bilateral trade agreement covering trade in goods, rules of origin, trade in services, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, dispute settlement, movement of natural persons, telecom, financial services and customs cooperation.
Key: Signed on 22 February 2021 and in force from 1 April 2021; it was the first trade agreement India signed with any country in Africa - the fact examiners most often test.
An India-led alliance of governments, international organisations and industry to accelerate the adoption of sustainable biofuels and to develop standards and certification for them.
Key: Launched on 9 September 2023 on the sidelines of the G20 New Delhi Summit by the leaders of India, Brazil, the United States, Argentina, Italy, Singapore, Bangladesh, Mauritius and the UAE. Mauritius is therefore a founding member, which is why the biofuels chapter of this MoU has an existing multilateral scaffold; the GBA Secretariat helped Mauritius build its Biofuels Country Landscape Policy framework.
India's maritime vision for the Indian Ocean and beyond. SAGAR - Security and Growth for All in the Region - was announced by the Prime Minister on 12 March 2015 as a doctrine of regional maritime cooperation.
Key: MAHASAGAR - Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth across Regions - was announced during the Prime Minister's visit to Mauritius in March 2025, widening SAGAR's largely regional, security-centred frame to include economic diplomacy, connectivity and the wider Global South. That Mauritius is where MAHASAGAR was announced is not incidental to a fuel-supply agreement of this kind.
Improve connectivity between mainland Mauritius and its outer Agalega islands and support maritime domain awareness in the Indian Ocean.
Key: An airstrip and the St James jetty at Agalega, built with Indian assistance, were jointly inaugurated by the two Prime Ministers on 29 February 2024 along with six other India-assisted projects.
India's largest public sector oil marketing company, engaged in refining, pipeline transportation and marketing of petroleum products; a Maharatna central public sector enterprise under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. Its Mauritian subsidiary, India Oil (Mauritius) Ltd, is building the 27.5 TMT bunker facility at Mer Rouge.
The Mauritian state entity that imports petroleum products for the country; counterparty to IOCL in the five-year Sales and Purchase agreement.
Runs the alliance's country engagement programme; partnered with Mauritius's Ministry of Energy and Public Utilities to develop that country's Biofuels Country Landscape Policy framework, launched 21 August 2026.
India's nodal ministry for exploration, refining, distribution and marketing of petroleum and natural gas, and for international energy cooperation of this kind.
Mauritius is an island country in the south-western Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar; its capital and principal port is Port Louis, where Mer Rouge - the site of the new bunker fuel storage facility - is located. The Agalega islands, where India helped build an airstrip and the St James jetty inaugurated in February 2024, lie well to the north of the Mauritian mainland. Placing these together explains the geography of the deal: Mauritius sits astride the shipping lanes of the south-western Indian Ocean, which is what makes a bunkering facility there useful to vessels that never call at the island for any other reason.
Being a net exporter of refined products while importing most of its crude is the structural fact behind India's energy diplomacy - it sells processing capacity, not resources.
Mauritius, Seychelles, Maldives and Sri Lanka form the arc where SAGAR and its successor MAHASAGAR are actually implemented, through infrastructure, credit lines, maritime surveillance and now fuel supply.
Mauritius has the largest share of people of Indian origin in its population of any country, which is the long-standing basis of a relationship this agreement extends into the energy sector.
Marine fuel supply to passing ships is a distinct maritime business - Singapore built much of its port economy on it - and a storage facility at Port Louis is a small entry into that trade.
India's domestic ethanol blending programme is what gives it something to export in the biofuels chapter of the MoU: technology, standards and training rather than fuel.
GS Paper 2 > International Relations > Bilateral Agreements; GS Paper 3 > Energy Security
General Awareness > Agreements and International Organisations
General Awareness > International Agreements and PSUs
In India, the steel production industry requires the import of
Answer: coking coal
Consider the following statements: 1. Moringa (drumstick tree) is a leguminous evergreen tree. 2. Tamarind tree is endemic to South Asia. 3. In India, most of the tamarind is collected as minor forest produce. 4. India exports tamarind and seeds of moringa. 5. Seeds of moringa and tamarind can be used in the production of biofuels. Which of the statements given above are correct?
Answer: 3, 4 and 5
India-Mauritius relations, CECPA and the Global Biofuels Alliance recur in UPSC Prelims IR questions and in SSC general awareness on agreements.
The official term for petrol in Indian petroleum trade documents.
The standard automotive diesel grade.
Jet fuel for turbine-powered aircraft.
Fuel supplied to ships; bunkering is the business of refuelling vessels at a port.
Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement; the India-Mauritius CECPA was signed 22 February 2021 and entered into force 1 April 2021, India's first trade agreement with an African country.
An India-led alliance launched on 9 September 2023 at the G20 New Delhi Summit to promote sustainable biofuels; Mauritius is a founding member.
Security and Growth for All in the Region, India's Indian Ocean maritime cooperation doctrine announced on 12 March 2015.
Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth across Regions, announced during the Prime Minister's March 2025 visit to Mauritius, extending SAGAR to the wider Global South.