India is ready to abandon Russian oil and is confident in its ability to meet its oil needs through alternative sources, even in the event of restrictions on supplies from the Russian Federation due to possible secondary sanctions. This was announced by Indian Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on July 17. informs Reuters.
Puri noted that India is able to cope with potential disruptions in imports from Russia by shifting to other suppliers. He highlighted that new players such as Guyana are entering the market as well as increasing supply from existing producers including Brazil and Canada.
“I’m not worried at all. If something happens, we’ll deal with it.”, Puri said at an industry conference in New Delhi.
He added that India has already significantly expanded the geography of oil imports.
“India has diversified its sources of supply and I think we’ve gone from about 27 countries we used to buy from to about 40 countries now.”, Puri explained.
In the first half of this year, the import of Russian oil to India increased slightly. Private refiners Reliance Industries Ltd and Nayara Energy made about half of the total purchases. According to available data, Russia remains the leading supplier of crude oil to India, providing about 35% of all imported volumes. Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates follow. Indian Oil Corporation ( IOC.NS ) intends to return to its previous logistics model in the event of a reduction in supplies from Russia.
“It will go back to the same (supply) pattern that was used before the Ukraine crisis, when Russian supplies to India were below 2%”, – said the head of the company A.S. Sahni
It will be recalled that this week US President Donald Trump warned that countries that continue to import Russian oil may face sanctions if Moscow does not conclude a peace agreement with Ukraine within 50 days.
