President Donald Trump threatened he would impose further tariffs on India for its continued imports of Russian crude oil, Reuters reported today, noting the challenge in India’s diversification of oil supply.
“Modi is a good guy. He knew I was not happy, and it was important to make me happy,” Trump said aboard Air Force One on Sunday. “They do trade, and we can raise tariffs on them very quickly,” the U.S. president added in response to a Reuters question.
The United States slapped an additional 25% tariff on all Indian imports in August to punish the country for its continued purchases of Russian crude, which, due to the sanction-related price discount, has brought down India’s energy import bill significantly. Relying on imports for over 80% of its oil consumption makes it hard for India to give up Russian oil. Thanks to that discount, Russia quickly became India’s number-one supplier of the commodity.
Yet even the additional tariffs and signals from New Delhi that Indian refiners would reduce purchases from Russia did not have a major impact on imports. As of the middle of December 2025, the average daily rate of imports from Russia stood at 1.2 million barrels. That was down from 1.77 million barrels in November, ahead of the latest sanctions from Washington that targeted the top exporters of Russian crude, Rosneft and Lukoil. Yet it was nowhere near the sharp drop that many analysts forecast. Reuters used LSEG data for its report, as well as unnamed sources. One of these told the publication the rate of imports could rise to 1.5 million barrels daily by the end of the year.
Import flows could remain strong this month as well, as non-sanctioned oil companies step in to put their name on the shipments instead of Rosneft and Lukoil. The targets of the latest U.S. sanctions handled around half of Russia’s total oil exports, or some 2 million barrels daily, until November 21, when the sanctions came into effect. Since then, importers and exporters alike have been looking for, and finding, ways around the sanctions.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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