India’s purchases of Russian oil have again declined in April so far after hitting a steep increase in March. Domestic refiners reported imports of 1.57 million barrels per day of Russian crude. This is about 20 percent lower than the per-day purchase of Russian crude in March, according to a report by The Economic Times.
The surge in March purchases was driven by the availability of floating cargoes amid energy supply disruption from the Gulf region.
While purchases of Russian oil have declined, the number of Indian customers of the commodity has increased.
In January, only three companies were buying Russian oil. These were state-owned Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum, and Nayara Energy.
However, nearly all Indian refiners, except Numaligarh Refinery, are buying Russian crude in April.
The United States had flagged India’s buying of Russian oil. Donald Trump had termed this a way of funding Moscow’s war against Ukraine.
India had stopped buying Russian oil days before it announced a free trade deal with the US in February. This had led to a decline in Russian oil shipments to India.
However, the United States’ war against Iran forced the Trump administration to allow a waiver on Russian oil as crude prices surged to record levels after Iran’s closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz.
In March, Russia turned out to be the largest supplier of crude to India even as India’s total oil imports declined during the month.
India had imported almost half of its oil in March from Russia, while purchases from West Asian countries declined by 61 percent.
While the US has again extended the waiver on Russian oil for a month, the decline in oil imports in April was a result of a reduced number of floating vessels of crude.
According to reports, one of the major export terminals of Russia was damaged in a Ukrainian strike.
