Indian government is demanding state-run oil companies buy more cheap Russian oil in large quantities, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 21st (local time), citing senior industry executives.
Western countries such as the U.S. and the European Union are banning or reducing oil imports as part of sanctions against Russia that invaded Ukraine, but India, China, and Turkey are reducing the effect of sanctions by increasing discounted Russian oil imports.
Senior executives in the Indian oil industry said in recent weeks that government officials have been strongly encouraged to continue buying Russian crude and to find ways to take advantage of oil price discounts.
Accordingly, the state-run Indian National Oil Corporation is negotiating an additional supply contract with Russia’s largest state-run oil company Rosnefti, an executive said.
According to raw material information provider Kapler, India’s oil imports from Russia surged more than 25 times from an average of 30,000 barrels a day in February before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to 1 million barrels in June. This is more than a quarter of European countries’ imports of Russian crude oil and crude oil products, the WSJ explained.
In May, India bought an average of 840,000 barrels of Russian oil a day, more than doubling its imports from April, according to Kapler.
Russian Ural oil was traded up to $37 a barrel cheaper than Brent crude oil, and the price was $34 cheaper the previous day due to recent recovery in demand, the WSJ said.