“Indian refiners buy crude oil from Russia because it is good economics,” says energy expert Narendra Taneja, who also said that politics should not be brought into those deals.

“If Russian oil is available at attractive prices, why should not an Indian or for that matter any refiner buy it?” a report by Russian news agency TASS as saying.

India is among the world’s top crude oil importers. The Asian nation has been largely purchasing Russian oil.

A price cap has been imposed by G7 nations on Russian oil. Following which India, which is not a member of the group, has become one of the main outlets of seaborne crude oil since February last year after Vladimir Putin began invasion of Ukraine.

India largest oil importer of Russia

For two months in a row, Russia, in November remained the largest oil supplier of India, with the country shipping 909,400 barrels per day (bpd) of crude during the month.

According to energy cargo tracker Vortexa, in October, Russia supplied over 902,740 bpd of oil, which was the highest among all exporters to India.

Russia, on both the months, remained ahead of Iraq and Saudi Arabia in its oil export to India.

In November, Russian oil accounted for 21 per cent of India’s total imports of 4.29 million bpd, the data showed.

Last month, India’s foreign minister Dr S Jaishankar strongly defended imports of crude oil from Russia amid the ongoing Ukraine conflict. He said India’s procurement was mere one-sixth of the European purchase in the past nine months.

His comments came at the backdrop of a G7 price cap on Russian crude at $60 a barrel came into effect.

Jaishankar also said that Europe can’t make choices to prioritise its energy needs while asking India to do something else, asserting that discussions between New Delhi and Moscow to expand the trade basket started much before the Ukraine conflict started in February.

“I understand that there is a conflict situation (in Ukraine). I also understand that Europe has a point of view and Europe will make the choices it will make that is Europe’s right. But for Europe to make choices which prioritises its energy needs and then ask India to do something else… ,” he said.

In November last year, the Indian minister assured that his country would continue to purchase from Russia even as the US claimed that New Delhi was taking advantage of the price cap that the G7 nations imposed on Russia from 5 December.
Source: First Post