Amid increasing pressure on India from the US and other Western powers over the past couple of months, Indian refiners — led by public sector players — began cutting down on Russian oil imports, much before US President Donald Trump’s announcement earlier this week of an unspecified tariff “penalty” on New Delhi for its defence and energy imports from Moscow. Latest vessel tracking data shows that July deliveries of Russian crude — which would have been contracted May or early June — to Indian refiners fell significantly. Industry and trade sources also indicated that Indian public sector refiners have, for the time being, halted future contracting of Russian oil, the mainstay of India’s oil imports for the better part of the past three years.
Trump has now said that he “heard” that India will no longer be buying oil from Russia, calling it a “good step”, but also added that he is not sure if the information is “right or not”. “Well, I understand India no longer is going to be buying oil from Russia. That’s what I heard. I don’t know if that’s right or not, but that’s a good step. We’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters in the US on Friday.
Meanwhile, India — the world’s third-largest consumer of crude oil with an import dependency level of over 85 per cent — continues to maintain that its oil purchases are commercial decisions. “We take decisions based on the price at which oil is available in the international market and depending on the global situation at that time,” Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said Friday in response to a question on whether Indian refiners have stopped buying Russian oil over the past few days.
Industry insiders, experts, and trade sources indicate that renewed pressure and threats from the US and Europe over the past few weeks have cast a shadow on India’s Russian oil imports, and could mark the beginning of Indian refiners pivoting away from Moscow’s oil. So far, India had successfully managed to walk “the fine line between energy security and geopolitical pressure”, but its options now appeared limited, one expert said, adding that Indian refiners “must now plan not just for commercial shifts, but for systemic geopolitical realignment”.
Deliberations are on between the government and other stakeholders — primarily refiners — on managing the situation and assessing the choices on the table for India, sources said. With a pre-emptive reduction in Russian oil imports, some bit of signaling has already taken place. The next steps would most likely be decided on how the India-US dynamic evolves, and more importantly, whether or not Trump decides to further harden the American stance and rhetoric against Russia. Any breakthrough between the White House and Kremlin over the Russia-Ukraine war would most likely ease the pressure on buyers of Russian crude.
This renewed pressure from the West — forcing Russia’s top trade partners to cut down on…
Disclaimer
We strive to uphold the highest ethical standards in all of our reporting and coverage. We 5guruayurveda.com want to be transparent with our readers about any potential conflicts of interest that may arise in our work. It’s possible that some of the investors we feature may have connections to other businesses, including competitors or companies we write about. However, we want to assure our readers that this will not have any impact on the integrity or impartiality of our reporting. We are committed to delivering accurate, unbiased news and information to our audience, and we will continue to uphold our ethics and principles in all of our work. Thank you for your trust and support.
Website Upgradation is going on. For any glitch kindly connect at 5guruayurveda.com
