Why India will continue Russian oil imports despite Trump's tariffs
'There is no pause. 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. No special effort is being made to either increase or decrease (the import volumes). We are buying crude as per economic considerations,' he stated.
He indicated that India's intent to continue buying Russian oil remains unchanged.
When questioned further, Sahney said that buying of Russian oil was not sanctioned at any point of time and India's decision to buy was due to economic considerations. 'Such purchases will continue unless sanctions are imposed. We have not got any instruction (from the government) to either increase or decrease purchase. We are doing business as usual,' he added.
About talk of refiners being asked to increase purchases from the US in a bid to placate Donald Trump, he emphasised, '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.'
Since 2022, India has become the largest purchaser of Russian oil, after the US and most European countries imposed economic sanctions on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
Sahney noted that purchase volumes may fluctuate monthly based on the discounts offered on Russian crude grades like Urals; and emphasised that Indian Oil has not been directed to either cut or boost purchases in response to the US tariffs.
Notably, previous discounts have been as high as $40/barrel, but the gap has narrowed to $2.70/barrel as of August. On an investor call, Vetsa Ramakrishna Gupta, the Director (Finance) of Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) noted that discounts in July narrowed to just $1.5/barrel as of July 2025, resulting in reduced off-take.
Before February 2022, Russian crude oil accounted for less than 1 per cent of India's total oil imports; however after sanctions by western nations India seized the opportunity and significantly ramped up its purchases to meet domestic energy requirements.
At present, Russian crude oil meets 30 per cent of India's needs. In fact, imports from Russia made up for 22-23 per cent of all the crude oil that IOC refineries processed in the April-June period, according to a PTI report.
For BPCL, Gupta added that in Q1, Russian oil comprised 34 per cent of its crude intake, and the company hopes to return to a 30-35 per cent ratio as long as there are no sanctions.
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