India, one of Asia’s biggest crude importers, emerged as a huge buyer of Russian cargoes following Moscow’s invasion, with refiners taking shipments shunned by processors in Europe and the US.
Panning reports that oil flows from Russia were being dropped because of payment-related charges, oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri said Indian refiners curbed crude imports as discounts on cargoes weren’t attractive.
“There is no payment problem,” Puri said at a presser, without mentioning a price cap on cargoes imposed by the Group of Seven to punish Russia for the war in Ukraine. “It is a pure function of price at which our refiners will buy,” Puri said.
India, one of Asia’s biggest crude importers, emerged as a huge buyer of Russian cargoes following Moscow’s invasion, with refiners taking shipments shunned by processors in Europe and the US.
New Delhi has said that such a stance made sense given its huge energy requirements.
India’s oil imports from Russia — a vital outlet for Moscow amid the war in Ukraine — fell in December to their lowest since January 2023, with local refiners not receiving a single Sokol cargo due to payment issues, according to Kpler.
The US and its allies have imposed sanctions on entities deemed to have breached the $60-a-barrel cap on Russian crude exports, which came into effect late in 2022.
