Rebuffing the US president Donald Trump鈥檚 comment on stopping Russian oil supply, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said they were unaware of any pause on the imports of oil from Russia, reports NDTV.
Speaking to reporters in Washington DC on Saturday, Trump said, 鈥業 understand that India is no longer going to be buying oil from Russia. That鈥檚 what I heard, I don鈥檛 know if that鈥檚 right or not. That is a good step. We will see what happens.鈥�
His remarks came days after Washington decided to impose a penalty on India for purchasing crude oil and military equipment from Russia, besides a 25 per cent additional import duty on goods imported from New Delhi. Earlier, Trump and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticised India for continuing to import discounted Russian oil despite Western sanctions over the Ukraine war.
Sources in the MEA, however, said the ministry is not aware of any possible halt in Russian imports. 鈥業ndia鈥檚 energy purchases are driven by national interests and market forces. We do not have any reports of Indian oil firms halting Russian imports,鈥� a source said.
There was no official statement from the ministry at the time of filing this report but on Friday, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal made a similar statement.
鈥榊ou are aware of our broad approach to energy sourcing requirements, that we look at what is available in the market and the prevailing global situation. We are not aware of any specifics,鈥� he said during the weekly briefing on Friday.
A series of reports had suggested that Indian state refiners have stopped buying Russian oil in the past week as discounts narrowed this month and the US warned against purchasing oil from Moscow. India, the world鈥檚 third-largest oil importer, is the biggest buyer of seaborne Russian crude.
According to a Reuters report, the country鈥檚 state refiners - Indian Oil Corp, Hindustan Petroleum Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp and Mangalore Refinery Petrochemical Ltd - have not sought Russian crude in the past week or so.
The refiners and the federal oil ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters鈥� requests for comment.
The four refiners regularly buy Russian oil on a delivered basis and have turned to spot markets for replacement supply - mostly Middle Eastern grades such as Abu Dhabi鈥檚 Murban crude and West African oil, sources said.
Private refiners Reliance Industries and Nayara Energy are the biggest Russian oil buyers in India, but state refiners control over 60 per cent of India鈥檚 overall 5.2 million barrels per day refining capacity.
On July 14, Trump threatened 100 per cent tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil unless Moscow reaches a major peace deal with Ukraine.
