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NEW DELHI, March 24 (Reuters) – India’s oil minister said on Wednesday African nations could play a central role as the world’s third biggest oil importer seeks to diversify its sources of oil and gas imports.

“As India seeks to further diversify sourcing of crude oil and LNG, Africa has a central role – largely due to its proximity and absence of any choke points in trans-shipments,” Dharmendra Pradhan told an industry summit.

He said Africa’s share of India’s oil import basket was about 15%.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Edmund Blair)

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