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Addressing a weekly presser on Friday, spokesman Randhir Jaiswal
said India’s broader stance on securing its energy needs was
guided by the availability of oil in the markets and prevailing
global circumstances.
The comments follow an announcement by President Donald Trump
that he intends to impose a 25% tariff on goods from India plus
an additional import tax because of New Delhi’s purchases of
Russian oil.
The threat came as the U.S. president has increasingly soured on
Russia for failing to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine and has
threatened new economic sanctions if progress is not made.
India bought 68,000 barrels per day of crude oil from Russia in
January 2022, but by June of same year oil imports rose to 1.12
million barrels per day. The daily imports peaked at 2.15
million in May 2023 and have varied since.
Supplies rose as high as nearly 40% of India's imports at one
point, making Moscow the largest supplier of crude to New Delhi,
the Press Trust of India reported, citing data from Kpler, a
data analytics company.
India’s daily oil consumption is pegged around 5.5 million
barrels, of which nearly 88% is met through imports.
The country has historically bought most of its crude from the
Middle East, but this has changed since Russia's full-scale
invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
India, the world’s third-largest crude importer after China and
the U.S., began buying Russian oil available at discounted rates
after the West shunned it to punish Moscow.
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