According to Reuters, citing a source in the White House, in the context of “productive trade negotiations” with the United States, Indian refineries began to reduce purchases of Russian oil by 50%. This has not yet been reflected in physical deliveries, but may become noticeable in December-January.
There is no independent confirmation of the agency’s information yet, but it also writes that two state-owned oil companies in India - Indian Oil and Hindustan - have begun purchasing oil from the American Exxon. The batches are quite large, 2 million barrels each, and are supplied from the fields of Guyana.
- A spokesman for the Indian Foreign Ministry today said that he could not confirm Donald Trump’s conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi about stopping Russian oil supplies. And India’s imports of Russian oil in October even increased by 250 thousand b/d compared to September, to 1.8 million b/d.
- Separately, Bloomberg learned that Trump's statement yesterday that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised him to stop importing Russian oil took the country's oil refining industry by surprise. The companies asked for instructions from the political leadership. Russia now provides more than a third of Indian oil imports, and the industry is hoping that this is only a matter of reducing purchases.
- India remains subject to 50% US secondary tariffs on Russian oil imports, but the exemptions are broad. We explained how they will affect the country's economy here .