India cut oil imports from Russia

MOSCOW, 4 Sep — PRIME. India has reduced oil imports from Russia in the past two months, but may increase them amid EU restrictions on Russian oil, Vortexa analysts say.

India imported 738,024 bpd of Russian crude oil in August, down 18% from July and 24.5% from June, according to the company. It is noted that this happened against the backdrop of a general decline in oil imports to India – in August it fell to 4,049,167 barrels per day, which is 13% lower than in July and 15% lower than in June.

“Since May, we have seen that Russian oil imports to India account for about 20% of the country’s total oil imports, crowding out conventional supplies from the Middle East, West Africa and the US. I definitely see room for more Russian oil going to India in coming months as the EU ban on Russian oil imports approaches,” Vortexa analyst Serena Huang told the Economic Times.

According to the company, in August Russia fell to third place among the largest exporters of crude oil to India, while Saudi Arabia moved up two places to become the largest oil exporter to India, surpassing Iraq for the first time in a year. Saudi Arabia’s market share in India was 20.8% in August, followed by Iraq (20.6%) and Russia (18.2%).

G7 finance ministers (Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Canada, the US, France and Japan) agreed on Friday to introduce a “price cap” on Russian oil and urged other states to join the initiative. The leaders of the G7 countries formulated their intention to limit oil prices in the Russian Federation at the summit on June 26-28 as part of reducing dependence on energy from Russia. At the beginning of July there were proposals to set the limit at half the current price. According to the Bloomberg agency, figures of 40-60 dollars were discussed.

On Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told reporters that the idea of ​​limiting the price of Russian oil is completely absurd, Russia will not supply oil and oil products to those countries that support it. At the same time, he added that the introduction of restrictions on Russian oil prices would destroy the market, other producers also do not respond positively to this absurdity.

Novak noted that Russian oilmen are preparing for the introduction of an embargo on oil from the Russian Federation in the European Union, all plans are focused on maintaining production. He added that the production of oil and condensate in Russia by the end of 2022 could reach 520-525 million tons, almost at the level of last year’s 524 million tons. In addition, the Deputy Prime Minister noted that Russia supports the continuation of the OPEC + deal after 2022, the issue will be discussed by the alliance in the fall.

According to Dmitry Birichevsky, Director of the Department of Economic Cooperation of the Russian Foreign Ministry, the introduction of a price ceiling on Russian oil and gas is risky and will only aggravate the energy crisis, in the event of such steps from the West, Russian companies will act on the basis of economic expediency.