Indian state oil refiners, Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp, and Hindustan Petroleum Corp, are in discussions with Rosneft Oil Co PJSC for long-term supplies of Russian crude. The refiners aim to secure about 500,000 barrels per day of Russian crude supplies to diversify their sources.
India s reliance on cheap Russian crude oil is expected to decrease as traditional Middle Eastern suppliers offer more attractive conditions. Since Russia s invasion of Ukraine last year, India s consumption of Russian crude has increased significantly, surpassing Saudi Arabia and Iraq as the top supplier. However, rising prices have reduced the discount on Russian crude, making other sources, including those with term contracts, more appealing.
A Bloomberg report published in February noted that India is importing more and more oil from Moscow and refining it into fuels, which are being supplied to Europe and the US notably, the Russian oil processed into fuels in India isn’t considered to be of Russian origin.
India shipped the highest volume of oil products among five laundromat nations – including China, Turkey, the UAE, and Singapore – to price cap coalition countries, a year since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.