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Time of India
13 minutes ago
- Time of India
No pause on Russian oil imports, India continues imports based on economic rationale
India has not halted oil purchases from Russia in response to the US President's tariff threat and continues to buy based solely on economic considerations, said AS Sahney, Chairman of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the country's largest oil firm. Purchase volumes may fluctuate monthly based on the discounts offered on Russian crude grades like Urals. While discounts had previously reached as high as $ 40 per barrel, they have narrowed to just $ 1.5 late last month, resulting in reduced offtake. Discounts have since widened to about $ 2.70. However, India's intent to continue buying Russian oil remains unchanged. India became the largest customer of Russian oil from 2022, after western countries shunned Russian oil and imposed sanctions on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine. Sahney said refiners like IOC buy crude oil from Russia purely on economic consideration and have not been asked to cut or boost purchase in response to US tariffs, he said. "There is no pause," he said. Russian oil has continued to flow to Indian refiners in July as well as this month. "We continue to buy, purely based on economic considerations, that is to say if the pricing and characteristics of the crude make sense in our scheme of processing, we buy," he told reporters here. "No special effort is being made to either increase or decrease (the import volumes). We are buying crude as per economic considerations," he said. Imports from Russia made up for 22-23 per cent of all the crude oil that IOC refineries processed in the April-June period. US President Donald Trump last week announced an additional 25 per cent tariff on US imports from India -- raising the overall duty to 50 per cent -- as a penalty for the country's continued imports of Russian oil. Since the steep tariffs are likely to hit the $ 40 billion of non-exempt exports that India does to the US, there has been chatter around stopping or curtailing oil imports from Russia. "There are no sanctions on Russian crude," he said. "India has not done anything that violates any sanctions". Separately, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) Director (Finance) Vetsa Ramakrishna Gupta on an investor call said the discounts have narrowed to $ 1.5 per barrel, and led to lower imports last month. In the first quarter, Russian oil made up 34 per cent of BPCL's crude intake and the company hopes to return to a 30-35 per cent ratio as long as there are no sanctions, he said. Before February 2022, Russian crude oil accounted for less than 1 per cent of India's total oil imports. However, after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, western nations shunned Russian energy, leading to Russian crude being available at discounted rates compared to global benchmarks. Seizing the economic opportunity, India ramped up its purchases, significantly increasing its reliance on Russian oil to meet domestic energy needs. Russian crude oil now meets 30 per cent of the requirement. Sahney said at no time was import of crude oil from Russia sanctioned and so India continued to purchase keeping in mind economic considerations. "Such purchases will continue unless sanctions are imposed," he said. "We have not got any instruction (from the government) to either increase or decrease purchase. We are doing business as usual." About talk of refiners being asked to increase purchases from the US in a bid to placate Trump, IOC Chairman said, "Neither are we being told to buy more nor are we told to buy less from US or any other destination. Economic considerations dictate our actions."
Time of India
13 minutes ago
- Time of India
Discounts dip but Economics keep Russian oil flowing to India
NEW DELHI: The flow of Russian crude to India remains unabated in spite of discounts shrinking to $1.5-2 per barrel as market factors and input requirement continue to drive refiners' choice in the absence of any govt directive for or against those imports amid US and European Union (EU) pressure. 'We are buying crude as per the economics. We are not making any extra effort for either increasing or decreasing Russian crude (purchase)," IndianOil chairman Arvinder Singh Sahney said on Thursday. Coming from the head of India's largest state-run refiner and a major buyer of Russian crude, the statement can be construed as an indication the govt remains undaunted by western pressure against purchase of those barrels. Govt sources said a team of officials from the external and commerce ministries is set to visit Russia for further discussion on a Rupee-Rouble trade, something both countries have been pursuing for years. Several cargoes of Russian crude was delivered to western ports last week, contrary to foreign media reports of India pausing purchase of Russian oil. Describing those reports as 'wrong', Sahney pointed out that Russian oil was not sanctioned like Iranian or Venezuelan crude but is only subject to a price cap. He said the US had set the price cap at $60/barrel, among other curbs, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The EU's latest curbs has lowered the cap to $47 (at current oil prices). There is no curb on buying Russian oil within these conditions. Sahney said buying (clean) Russian oil even at small discounts could make sense for refiners if the yield patten of that particular grade suits the production plan at a given point. 'If the pricing and characteristics of the crude suits our scheme of processing, we buy,' he said explaining the monthly variations in the quantity of imports from Russia or the US. Separately, executives of other refining companies said the wind-down provisions in the US penalty on New Delhi allow import of Russian crude loaded upto seven days from the order, after which the 25% additional tariff will be imposed on Indian goods exports. 'We will continue to import Russian oil but will not violate the sanctions,' an executive of major refining company said requesting that neither he nor his company be identified.
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Business Standard
13 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Trump's 'Golden Dome' still shrouded in mystery, even for its builders
The companies expected to create President Donald Trump's 'Golden Dome for America' know the objective: to protect the US from missiles and airborne threats. They know it means billions of dollars' worth of contracts. But they don't know much about what, exactly, they are expected to do — and at an event last week, the government officials who might tell them weren't even allowed to mention the project by name. Attendees at the 28th annual Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama, saw signs early on that the topic on everyone's minds might be tricky to discuss. Before the event even began, the industry groups hosting it removed a Golden Dome-focused panel. 'Information regarding Golden Dome for America will be promulgated by the government,' they said. Major defense contractors, including Lockheed Martin Corp., RTX Corp. and Northrop Grumman, prepared slick websites and flashy sideshows for the conference to demonstrate how their work fits with the president's vision for an air and missile defense network protecting the entire US. Their executives were all singing the same tune: The project is so ambitious and potentially lucrative that there's a role for everyone, and plenty of opportunity for collaboration, including between startups and nontraditional defense companies. Just don't ask the government for details. 'In the last six months I've walked into many, many rooms and said, 'I can't take any questions on you-know-what,' and I've never received a question other than something about you-know-what,' Air Force Lieutenant General Heath Collins, director of the Missile Defense Agency, said to laughter after delivering closing remarks at the event. Golden Dome will include existing systems, accelerated development of advanced technology, and ultimately new components such as space-based interceptors, according to Trump, who announced his plan for the programme in one of his first executive orders after returning to the presidency. He also has said the project will be fully operational before the end of his term and will cost $175 billion. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the price tag for a network of space-based interceptors could be as high as $542 billion over 20 years. Space Force General Michael Guetlein, who is leading the project, is expected to unveil its architecture by mid-September. At the conference, industry representatives showcased their hardware, including RTX's Patriot missile defense system, which uses Lockheed Martin's PAC-3 MSE interceptor, and Northrop Grumman's Integrated Battle Command System, as they sought insight from the government on how the pieces will fit together. Companies also pointed to the work they or their corporate predecessors had done on President Ronald Reagan's space-based Strategic Defense Initiative - the so-called 'Star Wars' missile defense program that fizzled in the 1980s — saying they were up for the challenge of making it work 40 years later. Riki Ellison, founder and chairman of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, said on the sidelines of the symposium that not being able to speak openly about an 'executive order that is out in the public, that we're going to build this in three years for $175 billion — it just delays this process and puts more pressure to get this thing in play.' None of the industry or academic sources interviewed for this article knew why there were such restrictions. In a statement, the Pentagon declined to disclose further information because of operational concerns, saying only that the Defense Department is gathering information to support Golden Dome. The Pentagon has declined so far to detail which organisation compiled the $175 billion estimate, how many years it covered, an annual breakdown of the costs and categories on which the money would be spent. 'It would be imprudent for us to release further information at this time,' Pentagon spokesperson Kingsley Wilson told reporters last week. Space Force General Guetlein 'just got in the building,' said Wilson, who pledged to be 'transparent where we can be' about a 'very expensive' but 'very critical' programme. Not all of the government speakers at the event avoided the forbidden words. A NASA representative — notably not bound by the Pentagon's strictures — spoke about the work his agency is doing that could support Golden Dome, including advanced propulsion technologies and materials science. Industry representatives say they hope to learn more soon. The restriction on what can be discussed 'seems to have been partially lifted and probably will be more lifted as we keep going through this,' said Milton Carroll of Peraton, which aims to help Golden Dome systems communicate seamlessly. MDA's Collins also sounded an optimistic note, telling the defense officials, contractors and academics at the event that the program's launch presented a unique opportunity. 'It's a fleeting moment,' he said. 'As history has shown, this doesn't last forever, and we need to make a monster change now.'
