Indian refiners have bought 30 million barrels of Russian oil since the United States gave the green light for the purchases to help the country cope with a shortage in West Asian supplies, according to people familiar with the deals.
India has reduced its purchases of Russian oil since last year in response to US pressure, filling the gap with replacement barrels from Saudi Arabia and Iraq – only to find supplies cut off by the widening conflict in the Middle East. The Strait of Hormuz, which connects the region’s major producers to the rest of the world, has been effectively closed since the start of US and Israeli strikes on Iran.
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Since the US granted the exemption late last week, refiners in the South Asian country, including Indian Oil and Reliance Industries, have bought all unsold cargoes of Russian crude in the spot market, said the people, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. The oil was loaded but not delivered, and most of it was already in Asian waters.
Russian crude – which includes a wide range of grades including Urals, ESPO and Varandi – was offered at premiums of between $2 to $8 per barrel over London’s Dated Brent index, the sources said. Before the war in West Asia, Russian oil traded at discounts on the same index.
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State-owned Indian Oil Corporation bought about 10 million barrels of Russian crude, while Reliance bought at least the same amount, traders said. Indian Oil and Reliance did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The US exemption covers transactions related to Russian crude oil and petroleum products loaded on ships before March 5, as long as they are delivered to India and purchased by an Indian company. Since then, tankers that were moving away from the Indian subcontinent have returned. Among them, the ship Maylo and Sarah changed course to head to India over the past days after originally citing Singapore as their destination.
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India, which has not traditionally imported much Russian oil, ramped up its purchases after invading Ukraine in early 2022, ultimately angering the Trump administration, eager to increase pressure on the Kremlin. Russian oil itself is not subject to sanctions, but Washington has blacklisted the country’s two largest producing companies.
Buying peaked at more than 2 million bpd in mid-2024, but fell to an average of 1.06 million bpd in February, according to data intelligence firm Kpler.
