New Delhi
\nRussian oil exports to India have quadrupled this month in a sign of the vast reshaping of global energy flows since Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.
\nIndia, the world\u2019s third-largest energy consuming country, has snapped up multiple cargoes of Russian oil from traders as buyers in Europe shunned the country\u2019s vast commodities market following western sanctions on Moscow.
\nRussia has exported 360,000 barrels a day of oil to India in March so far, nearly four times the 2021 average. The country is on track to hit 203,000 b\/d for the whole month based on current shipment schedules, according to Kpler, a commodities data and analytics firm. Export data represent cargoes that have been loaded on to tankers and are en route to India.
\nAlex Booth, head of research at Kpler, said India typically buys CPC, a blend of predominantly Kazakh and Russian crude, but the big increase in March was for Russia\u2019s flagship Urals crude, suggesting Indian buyers weighed up significant discounts against public opinion.
\n\u201cAlready committed oil cargoes from Russia that can\u2019t find buyers in Europe are being bought by India,\u201d he said. \u201cExports to India surged in March before any official announcement by New Delhi.\u201d
\nOn Tuesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki warned that India would be on the wrong side of history if it bought Russian oil, although she acknowledged the purchases would not violate US sanctions.
\nHistorically, Russian crude oil has constituted below 5 per cent of India\u2019s total imports, which were 4.2mn b\/d last year.
\n\u201cIndian companies weren\u2019t sourcing much from Russia given high shipping costs,\u201d said Vivekanand Subbaraman, research analyst at Ambit Capital. \u201cThis appears to be changing now.\u201d
\nLars Barstad, chief executive of Frontline, a New York-listed tanker company, said that the discount on Russian Urals was about $25-30 a barrel, whereas freight rates would only add $3-4 per barrel, making the trade economic.
\nFrontline and other tanker companies have been avoiding trading Russian oil because of the complexity of complying with sanctions, but many oil majors and traders are legally bound under contracts to keep lifting Russian barrels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi Russian oil exports to India have quadrupled this month in a sign of the vast reshaping of global energy flows since Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine. India, the world\u2019s third-largest energy consuming country, has snapped up multiple cargoes of Russian oil from traders as buyers in Europe shunned the country\u2019s vast commodities market following […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-250138","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n