A 32-fold increase year-on-year! India bought another record amount of Russian oil last month

While the West sanctioned Russian crude oil, India bought Russian oil
aggressively.

India, the world's third-largest crude importer, imported a record 1.
2 million barrels of oil from Russia last month, up 32 times year-on-year and 29 percent
month-on-month, according to Vortexa Ltd.

After overtaking Iraq and Saudi Arabia a few months ago, Russia has become India's
largest source of oil.

With the outbreak of geopolitical conflict in February last year, Indian refineries have been pumping up cheap Russian crude
.
December's sharp increase may be the result
of further declines in Russian oil prices due to additional sanctions imposed by the G7 and the European Union on Russian oil, including a price cap of $60 per barrel.

Serena Huang, chief Asia analyst at Vortexa, said:

Prices could be attractive for Russian crude oil supplies to Indian refineries, which have become Russia's largest buyers of crude oil
.

India imports 85% of its oil, and the country's energy prices are highly vulnerable to international oil price fluctuations
.
Since May last year, the Indian government has been suppressing the price
of gasoline and diesel from state-owned refineries.

While significantly increasing imports of Russian oil, India's imports from Iraq and Saudi Arabia also increased
last month.
According to Vortexa, purchases from Iraq increased by 7 percent to about 886,000 barrels per day and purchases from Saudi Arabia increased by 12 percent to about 748,000 barrels
per day.

On December 5, the day the European Union's price cap on Russian crude oil came into effect, Indian Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that Europe's imposition of a price cap on Russian crude oil had a "zero" impact on India, and said that it would buy oil
from any country that needed to buy.
Puri said:

India is not under pressure to stop purchasing, we currently buy crude oil from 39 countries, and Iraq, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and Russia all want to sell more oil
to India.

We source
from wherever you need to buy it.
India consumes 5 million barrels of oil per day and growing
.

When India imports Russian oil on a large scale, refined oil and gas products not only meet the country's domestic demand, but even change hands to Western countries
such as the United States.

Lauri Myllyvirta, an analyst at the research institute's Energy and Clean Air Research Center, said:

What could happen is that some Indian oil and gas companies buy a shipment of cheap Russian crude, refine it, sell it on the market, and find a U.
S.
buyer
on the market.
It does look like there is a trade, with Russian crude being refined in India and then some of the refined products being sold to the United States
.