In the federal budget for 2023-24, the government had outlined a plan to purchase crude oil worth 50 billion rupees for caverns in the southern cities of Mangalore and Visakhapatnam.
With increasing volumes of sweeter Russian grades now being imported into India, even older Indian refineries that use sweet grades as feedstock can process discounted Russian oil.
India's fuel consumption jumped 23.8% in May from a year earlier, continuing a recovery from a relatively low base in 2021, when the country was in the grip of a second wave of COVID-19.