The decline of India’s crude oil imports from Russia could be only temporary as Russia plans to boost supply and evade Western sanctions, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday as India prepares to welcome Vladimir Putin on an official visit later this week.
“There can be, for a very brief period of time, insignificant decreases in the volume of oil trade,” Peskov told Indian reporters today, ahead of Putin’s visit to India that begins on Thursday.
Before the latest sanctions on Russian oil trade, India bought from Russia around one-third of all the crude it imported, as it sought cheaper oil.
Amid tense trade negotiations with the United States, India earlier this year was singled out by U.S. President Donald Trump as the main financier of the Kremlin’s oil revenues. At the time, India remained adamant that it would buy the cheapest oil available regardless if it comes from Russia or elsewhere.
However, the U.S. sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil upended all previous plans by Indian refiners, who hastened to withdraw from the spot market for Russian crude in December.
All but two Indian refiners have skipped placing orders for Russian crude for December, apparently not willing to test how serious the U.S. Treasury would be with potential secondary sanctions.
Earlier this week, a former foreign minister in New Delhi told local media that India could reduce its imports of Russian crude oil by 50%, noting that both India and Russia would nevertheless look for ways to go around U.S. sanctions to keep some oil flowing.
“We will be gradually reducing oil purchases from Russia…Already there is a reduction, and there’ll be more reduction. It will be more like a 50 per cent reduction. But some oil will still come,” Kanwal Sibal said, as quoted by Business Today.
Russia’s Peskov claimed today Russia manages to find ways to prevent the decline of its oil trade volume amid the sanctions against its energy sector.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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