India’s state-owned refiners seek to fully revive Russian crude buys despite US pressure

State-owned oil refiners in India want to fully revive purchases of discounted Russian crude — pushing back against US pressure — but plans have been set back by a lack of cargoes, people familiar with the matter said.

The refiners in the South Asian nation are getting fewer offers for October-loading Russian cargoes, said the people, who asked not to be identified given the sensitivity of the trade. Barrels from Moscow had been redirected to China.

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Moscow’s oil is also facing heightened competition from other nations, they said.

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The global oil market is focused on buying patterns by Indian processors after Washington tried to squeeze shipments from Russia by raising US tariffs on most imports from the Asian nation to punitive levels. The initiative met with stiff resistance from New Delhi, and while the levies remain in place, the Trump administration has softened its rhetoric in recent days.

At the same time, crude traders are also trying to figure out the implications of an OPEC+ decision at the weekend to ease supply curbs even further. That means several producers within the group, including major shippers in the Middle East, have more leeway to offer exports, along with Moscow.

Emails seeking comment sent to India’s four state-owed refiners — Indian Oil Corp., Bharat Petroleum Corp., Hindustan Petroleum Corp., and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. — didn’t get immediate replies.

“We have never stopped procurement of Russian crude,” Indian Oil Corp. Director of Finance Anuj Jain said on the sidelines of APPEC by S&P Global Commodity Insights in Singapore on Monday.

“Depending upon the economics, we continue to buy,” Jain said, adding that at present, the effective discount on Moscow’s oil was $2 to $3 a barrel to the Dubai benchmark.

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Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday that the country would continue to buy oil from Russia, underlining the government’s intent to defy US pressure. Earlier, Oil Minister Hardeep Puri had rebutted the US stance on crude imports from Moscow in a bluntly worded newspaper column.

In the four weeks to Aug. 31. Russia’s seaborne crude flows to India eased to 1.3 million barrels a day from 1.97 million in March, as China picked up the slack, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg .

New Delhi’s imports from Moscow next month could drop by a quarter of a million barrels a day, FGE NexantECA Chairman Emeritus Fereidun Fesharaki told Bloomberg Television on Monday, adding that India’s peak buying was over.

The US levies on India are meant to raise pressure on Moscow to end the war in Ukraine. Washington and Europe were discussing new sanctions and secondary tariffs on Russia, hoping an economic “collapse” would bring Vladimir Putin to peace talks, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at the weekend.