India Keeps Buying Russian Oil at Near-Record Pace Despite Expired Waiver

India’s crude oil imports have remained close to record-high levels in July despite the end of the U.S. waiver the previous month.

The U.S. quietly let the waiver allowing the purchase of Russian oil loaded on tankers expire on June 17, just as the U.S. and Iran signed the memorandum of understanding to continue negotiations on a deal.

Yet, Indian imports of Russian crude has continued to flow in July, many of which may have been cargoes that were arranged during the window covered by the U.S. waiver.

So India’s imports of crude oil from Russia have averaged 2.45 million barrels per day (bpd) so far this month, according to data by Kpler cited by Indian media.

The July imports from Russia are not far off the record high level of 2.64 million bpd in June, when India boosted purchases from Russia, encouraged by the U.S. waiver that has been extended by a month a few times since March.

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The Iran war and the Hormuz crisis further cemented Russia’s position as the single largest crude oil supplier to India

So far in July, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has ranked second, supplying an average of 617,000 bpd, while Saudi Arabia has been India’s third largest supplier with 586,000 bpd in early July, per Kpler data.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia have workarounds to ship crude from terminals outside the Strait of Hormuz. Saudi Arabia has redirected most of its shipments to the Yanbu export port on the Red Sea, while the UAE has relied on a pipeline to Fujairah and ship-to-ship transfers on tankers offshore Oman and the UAE east of the Strait of Hormuz.

Going forward, Russian crude will remain a key source of oil supply for India even if the U.S. doesn’t renew the waiver for Russian crude already loaded on tankers, analysts say.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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