&w=3840&q=100)
Despite US pressure, Russian oil tankers unload at Indian refineries
Bloomberg
By Weilun Soon and Rakesh Sharma
At least four tankers discharged millions of barrels of Russian crude at Indian refineries at the weekend, a sign the closely scrutinised deliveries are continuing as normal, even as the US ramps up pressure on the South Asian country to stop purchases.
Oil traders and shipping companies have been waiting for direction from New Delhi on whether supplies from Moscow will be allowed to continue after US President Donald Trump last week threatened punitive action to curb trade with Russia. Over the weekend, a senior aide accused India of effectively funding President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine.
Washington's tough demands, coming after a surprise 25 per cent tariff on Indian exports to the US, threw private and state-owned refineries' purchase plans into disarray. Still, India hasn't asked refiners to stop Russian crude imports, according to people familiar with the matter.
Three Aframaxes — the Achilles, Elyte and Horae — unloaded nearly 2.2 million barrels of Urals crude, a key Russian grade, to private processors Nayara Energy Ltd and Reliance Industries Ltd over the weekend after a slight delay, ship-tracking data show.
The Mikati, also an Aframax, delivered more than 720,000 barrels of Russia's Varandey crude on a two-stop journey that included deliveries to refineries in Kochi and Mangalore. State-run Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd owns the Kochi refinery, while Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. is majority owned by state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp Ltd.
More tankers are poised to discharge another 2.2 million barrels of Urals in the coming hours, with Minion and Destan now at Sikka, a terminal operated by Reliance. Aldebaran is due to unload across the gulf at Mundra. While Bloomberg News couldn't immediately determine the buyer, the Mundra port serves both government-run Indian Oil Corp Ltd. and HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd, partially owned by state-run Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd.
Reliance, the largest buyer of Russian Urals, has a long-term deal with Russian producer Rosneft PJSC that would ensure it can get those barrels over several years.
India's appetite for discounted Russian crude, and its position as the single largest buyer of Moscow's seaborne oil, has long been a pain point for the US and Western allies. Scrutiny has increased in recent weeks, even before Trump's latest comments. Nayara was sanctioned by the European Union on July 18 for its links to Russia, prompting the processor to cut run rates and pushing trade partners to seek supplies elsewhere.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
12 minutes ago
- Indian Express
As Trump's fresh threats loom, India still has a slight tariff edge over China but loses advantage with Vietnam
Despite fresh tariff escalation threats and the prospect of higher duties under the new regime announced by US President Donald Trump that could take effect from August 7, India continues to have a relative advantage on a key metric being tracked by policymakers in New Delhi – the tariff differential with China. As on August 1, China had the highest effective tariff rate (ETR) of the US's major trading partners, with India with a comparative advantage of around 20 percentage points. While tariffs on China remain at 34 per cent, the total ETR inclusive of the tariff rate at the end of 2024 came to around 42 per cent, according to Fitch Ratings' updated ETR Monitor that reflects the July 27 and July 31 announcements of new reciprocal tariff rates for most trading partners of the US. While India is slightly over 21 per cent, according to the latest data, the overall effective tariff rate for the US across all its trading partners is now 17 per cent — about 8 percentage points lower than Fitch's ETR Monitor of April 3, 2025, when higher reciprocal tariffs were originally announced, but around 3 percentage points higher than the estimate at the end of June 2025. The ETR represents total duties as a percentage of total imports and changes, with shifts in import share by country of origin and product mix. With Vietnam, though, India now has lost a slight advantage in ETR terms after additional tariffs kicked in, as against an advantage up to end-2024. This is despite Trump's rhetoric against transhipped goods and his administration's efforts to neutralise China's supply bases in ASEAN. And going forward, given Trump's frustration with India on not agreeing to his terms for a deal, this disadvantage is likely to fester. That is likely to be the case till Delhi gets a deal of some kind with Washington DC, but the situation could, however, change for the worse going forward, with Trump warning Monday that he would raise the tariff on India 'substantially' for buying Russian oil. Amid all the upheaval thrown up by America's tariff action, the assumptions that the Indian policymaker had implicitly factored in include that Washington DC will maintain a differential of 10-20 per cent in tariffs between China and countries such as India; and that a trade deal with the US needs to be clinched precisely for ensuring the gap in tariffs between India and China is maintained, even with a limited early-harvest type of deal. New Delhi did back out at the last minute from signing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (a trade deal among Asia-Pacific countries including China) given the sensitivities of agri livelihoods. A higher-than-anticipated US tariff rate, especially on a comparative basis, could dent India's growth prospects, economists said. Though Trump did not specify the rate of penalty for India on account of Russian oil and defence imports, earlier statements made by Trump indicate that it could be to the tune of 100 per cent. This way, India stands to potentially lose the US tariff advantage vis-a-vis China at least till the time a deal is struck, even if Beijing, too, faces the same penalty for importing from Russia. China is the largest buyer of Russian oil, at about 2 million barrels per day, followed by India (just under 2 million a day) and Turkey. China had agreed to cut tariffs on US goods to 10 per cent from 125 per cent in May, while the US had agreed to lower tariffs on Chinese goods to 30 per cent from 145 per cent. But with respect to Russian oil, Trump has been singling out India, while being largely silent on China. Given how talks between Indian and US negotiators have proceeded so far, an interim deal still seems distant and is unlikely to be clinched before September, with October a possible outer deadline. Indications are a sixth round of talks between the two negotiating teams will take discussions forward on August 25. India's government has asked it various ministries to come up with potential giveaways to sweeten the deal for the upcoming negotiations. Once the official level discussions wrap up, there is a sense that a final call on the deal could come down to a conversation between the two leaders, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump. For India, the best-case scenario would be to get a deal of some sort now, and then build on that in the future negotiations that could run into 2026, experts said. The effective duty on Chinese products on a landed basis across US ports in commodity categories where Indian producers are reasonably competitive is being tracked constantly. The net tariff differential with India, and how that curve continues to move, is of particular interest here, given the belief that Washington DC would ensure a reasonable tariff differential between China and India. Officials said a 10-20 per cent differential is expected to tide over some of India's structural downsides — infrastructural bottlenecks, logistics woes, high interest cost, the cost of doing business, corruption, etc. US and Chinese officials wrapped up two days of discussions in Stockholm last week, with no breakthrough announced. After the talks, China's top trade negotiator Li Chenggang declared that the two sides agreed to push for an extension of a 90-day tariff truce struck in mid-May, without specifying when and for how long this extension kicks in. Anil Sasi is National Business Editor with the Indian Express and writes on business and finance issues. He has worked with The Hindu Business Line and Business Standard and is an alumnus of Delhi University. ... Read More
Mint
12 minutes ago
- Mint
Highway Infrastructure IPO day 1: GMP, subscription status, review, registrar, other details. Apply or not?
Highway Infrastructure IPO day 1: The initial public offering (IPO) of Highway Infrastructure Limited has opened today and will remain open until 7 August 2025. The Indian infrastructure company has declared the Highway Infrastructure IPO price band at ₹ 65 to ₹ 70 per equity share. The company aims to raise ₹ 130 crore from this fresh capital-cum offer for sale. The public issue is proposed for listing on the BSE and the NSE. Meanwhile, company shares are available in the grey market at a robust premium. According to market observers, Highway Infrastructure shares are available at a premium of ₹ 41 in the grey market today. This means today's Highway Infrastructure IPO GMP (Grey Market Premium) is ₹ 41. Bidding for the Highway Infrastructure IPO will begin at 10:00 AM today and will remain open until 5:00 PM on each bid date. 1] Highway Infrastructure IPO GMP today: According to market observers, shares of the company are available at a premium of ₹ 41 in the grey market today. 2] Highway Infrastructure IPO price: The infrastructure company has declared a price band of ₹ 65 to ₹ 70 per equity share for the public issue. 3] Highway Infrastructure IPO date: Bidding for the public issue has opened today and will remain open until 7 August 2025. 4] Highway Infrastructure IPO size: The company aims to raise ₹ 130 crore from this public issue, of which ₹ 97.52 crore is aimed at the issuance of fresh shares. The rest, ₹ 32.48 crore, is reserved for the OFS route. 5] Highway Infrastructure IPO lot size: A bidder can apply in lots, and one lot of the public offer comprises 211 company shares. 6] Highway Infrastructure IPO registrar: Bigshare Services Pvt Ltd has been appointed the official registrar of the public offer. 7] Highway Infrastructure IPO allotment date: The most likely date for share allocation is 8 August 2025. 8] Highway Infrastructure IPO lead manager: Pantomath Capital Advisors has been appointed lead manager of the public issue. 9] Highway Infrastructure IPO listing date: The most likely date for the share listing is 12 August 2025. 10] Highway Infrastructure IPO review: Assigning a 'subscribe' tag to the public issue, Shivani Nyati, Head of Wealth at Swastika Investmart, said, "At the IPO upper band, the valuation stands at 18.06x FY25 earnings, with a post-issue market capitalisation of ₹ 5,020 million; the IPO is considered fully priced. The company's order book stands strong at ₹ 6,663 million as of May 2025, mainly from EPC projects. The IPO is recommended as a "SUBSCRIBE – LISTING GAIN AND LONG TERM" for investors seeking exposure to India's infrastructure sector." On whether one should apply to the public issue or not, Gaurav Goel, Founder and Director at Fynocrat Technologies, said, "Highway Infrastructure Limited is backed by a robust order book of ₹ 6,200 crore and a strong track record in executing highway and bridge projects across India. Profitability has improved in recent years, with PAT rising to ₹ 22.4 crore in FY25, while return ratios remain healthy. The company has also managed steady deleveraging, reducing its debt-equity ratio to 0.61 in FY25." However, Goel said that EBITDA margins remain modest at 6–7%, significantly below larger peers, and the IPO valuation at ~30x FY25 earnings appears demanding for a company of this scale. While the fundamentals are stable and sector tailwinds remain supportive, better value exists among established peers with stronger profitability. "The IPO offers an opportunity for near-term gains on the back of sector momentum and balance sheet strength, though long-term investors may prefer larger peers trading at more attractive valuations," Gaurav Goel of Fynocrat Technologies said. Disclaimer: The views and recommendations made above are those of individual analysts or broking companies, and not of Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before making any investment decisions.
Hans India
14 minutes ago
- Hans India
‘Every patriotic Indian has sought answers on China'
New Delhi: The Congress on Monday said every patriotic Indian has sought answers on China since the 2020 Galwan incident but the Modi government has chosen to obfuscate and hide the truth with its policy of 'DDLJ -- deny, distract, lie, and justify'. The opposition party also alleged that the Modi government is responsible for the biggest territorial setback India has faced since 1962, and accused it of pursuing 'normalisation' with a hostile China because of its cowardice and misplaced economic priorities. The Congress' attack on the government came on a day the Supreme Court censured Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi over his alleged derogatory remarks about the Indian Army during his Bharat Jodo Yatra. The apex court, however, stayed the proceedings initiated in the matter against Gandhi before a Lucknow court. The top court told Gandhi, 'How do you get to know that 2,000 sq km of Indian territory has been occupied by Chinese? Were you there? Do you have any credible material?' Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said ever since 20 brave soldiers were martyred in Galwan on June 15, 2020, every patriotic Indian has sought answers. 'Yet instead of providing answers, the Modi government for the past five years has chosen to obfuscate and hide the truth with its policy of 'DDLJ -- deny, distract, lie, and justify',' he said. In a post on X, Ramesh went on to ask a series of questions. 'Why did the Prime Minister give a clean chit to China saying 'Na koi hamari seema mein ghus aaya hai, na hi koi ghusa hua hai' on 19 June 2020, only four days after our soldiers heroically sacrificed their lives for the country in Galwan?' Ramesh said. 'Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi has said: 'We want to go back to the status quo of April 2020'. Does the withdrawal agreement of 21 October, 2024, take us back to the status quo?' he said. Are Indian patrols not required to take Chinese concurrence to access their Patrolling Points in Depsang, Demchok, and Chumar, whereas earlier they were able to freely exercise India's territorial rights, Ramesh added. Are Indian patrols not prevented from accessing their Patrolling Points in Galwan, Hot Spring, and Pangong Tso by 'buffer zones' that lie predominantly within the Indian claim line, he further asked. 'Was it not widely reported in 2020 that 1,000 sq km of eastern Ladakh had come under Chinese control, including 900 sq km in Depsang? Did the SP of Leh not submit a paper at the annual Director General of Police Conference in which he stated that India had lost access to 26 out of 65 Patrolling Points in eastern Ladakh?' Ramesh said.
