Indian refiners are seeking new suppliers of crude oil after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose new sanctions on Russia, Bloomberg reported on April 1.
India, now the biggest importer of Russian oil, benefits from discounted grades like Urals, enabling significant cost savings for its refiners.
India's state-owned Bharat Petroleum Corp. and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. are looking for additional options for May deliveries from regions such as the Middle East, North Sea, and Mediterranean, undisclosed traders told Bloomberg.
This week's tenders were seen as outside the regular procurement cycle, as barrels for next month's delivery are usually bought in early March.
The emergence of such rapid demand for non-Russian cargoes probably signals concerns about India's ability to obtain all the barrels that refiners previously purchased from Moscow, traders said.
Trump previously threatened to impose additional tariffs against Russia, threatening a "25% tariff on all oil, a 25- to 50-point tariff on all oil." The U.S. president has said he is "pissed off" by the Kremlin's attacks on President Volodymyr Zelensky's credibility.
The Trump administration recently tightened sanctions on Russia's oil and gas industry, letting lapse an exemption that allowed Russian banks to use U.S. payment systems for energy transactions.
At the same time, as Trump attempts to set up a quick ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, Moscow could receive relief from some of the previously imposed sanctions, Ihor Burakovsky, head of the board at the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting, told the Kyiv Independent.
The Trump administration officials have also signaled that some of the sanctions imposed on Russia could be lifted as part of a ceasefire or peace deal.
Dominic Culverwell
(Updated: )
