Four of Indiaʼs seven largest oil refiners are buying Russian oil again. The companies are taking shipments that are not subject to sanctions because Russia is offering deep discounts.
Bloomberg reports this, citing sources .
State-owned companies Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum have purchased about ten shipments of Urals crude in recent days, according to Bloomberg sources. Hindustan Petroleum is now looking for supplies for January.
Nayara Energy is also continuing to purchase despite European sanctions against it. Together, these four plants provide more than 60% of Indiaʼs oil imports.
Meanwhile, Reliance, Indiaʼs largest buyer of Russian oil, is not even using the oil under its own contract with Rosneft for 500 000 barrels per day. According to analysts, Reliance is expecting its last tanker with oil in December, and no new deliveries are planned.
Analysts predict that without Relianceʼs involvement, Russian oil in India will remain at 1-1.2 million barrels per day. Smaller refineries, including Mangalore Refinery and HPCL-Mittal Energy, have stopped purchasing from Russia altogether.
According to Bloomberg, Indiaʼs imports of Russian oil exceeded 2 million barrels per day in June. They are expected to fall to 1.3 million in December and could be even lower in January. The reason is sanctions against “Rosneft” and “Lukoil”, as well as Indiaʼs desire to avoid conflict with Washington.
- The US President Donald Trump signed sanctions against two of Russiaʼs largest energy companies, “Lukoil” and “Rosneft”, on October 23. The sanctions were supposed to take effect on November 23, but on November 15, the restrictions against “Lukoil” were postponed until December 13.
- In early December, the US postponed the introduction of sanctions against Russian oil giant “Lukoil” gas stations located outside the Russian Federation until April 29. “Lukoil” stake in Bulgaria was also exempted from sanctions until April 29. And Hungary was exempted from US sanctions on Russian oil and gas for a year.
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