India's biggest refiner buys US, Middle East crude as Trump slams Russia purchases
India is the biggest buyer of seaborne crude from Russia, which is under Western-led sanctions over its war in Ukraine.
Its main refiners paused buying Russian oil last week as discounts to other suppliers narrowed after Trump threatened hefty tariffs on imports from countries that make any such purchases, Reuters reported last week. Indian government officials denied any policy change.
On Monday, Trump said on Truth Social he would substantially raise the import levy on Indian goods, accusing the country of not only buying massive amounts of Russian oil but "they are then, for much of the Oil purchased, selling it on the Open Market for big profits".
India imported about 1.75 million barrels per day of Russian oil from January to June this year, up 1% from a year ago, according to data provided to Reuters by trade sources.
IOC, India's largest refiner, bought crude via a tender from the United States, Canada and the Middle East for September arrival, the trade sources said on Monday. They declined to be named because they were not authorised to speak to the media.
The refiner bought 4.5 million barrels of U.S. crude, 500,000 barrels of Western Canadian Select (WCS) and two million barrels of Das oil produced in Abu Dhabi, the sources said.
The higher-than-normal purchases are partly to replace Russian barrels, two of the sources said.
Indian state refiners - IOC, Hindustan Petroleum Corp , Bharat Petroleum Corp and Mangalore Refinery Petrochemical Ltd - had not sought Russian crude in the past week or so, Reuters reported last week.
Indian companies do not comment on oil purchases.
In IOC's tender that closed on Friday, P66 and Equinor will each ship 1 million barrels of U.S. West Texas Intermediate Midland crude while Mercuria will ship 2 million barrels of the same grade, the sources said. Vitol will deliver 1 million barrels of WTI Midland and WCS, they added.
Trafigura will deliver 2 million barrels of Das.
Prices for the deals were not immediately available.
U.S. criticism of India's oil purchases from Russia sharpened after New Delhi and Washington failed to reach an agreement on a trade deal, prompting the Trump administration to levy a 25% import tariff on Indian goods. (Reporting by Florence Tan, Siyi Liu in Singapore and Nidhi Verma in New Delhi; Editing by Kate Mayberry and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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