By Nidhi Verma
NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Some Indian refiners are preparing to cut Russian oil imports, three sources told Reuters on Thursday, after U.S. President Donald Trump said India had given an assurance it would stop its buying to help end the war in Ukraine.
India and China are the biggest buyers of Russian sea-borne crude, taking advantage of discounted prices Russia was forced to offer after losing sales to Europe following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Indian refiners are preparing to shift away from Russian oil, with a drop in purchases possible from December given orders for November have already been placed, the sources with knowledge of the matter said.
Refiners have not been formally told by the government to stop buying Russian oil, said the sources, who declined to be identified as they are not authorised to speak to media.
DEEPER CO-OPERATION
Indian officials are in Washington for trade talks, with the U.S. having doubled tariffs on Indian goods.
U.S. negotiators have said curbing its Russian crude purchases would be crucial to reducing India’s tariff rate and sealing a trade deal.
A foreign ministry spokesman said it was discussing deeper energy co-operation with the United States.
“The current (U.S.) administration has shown interest in deepening energy cooperation with India. Discussions are ongoing,” Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement.
Trump on Wednesday said he had spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about India’s purchases of Russian oil as part of his efforts to raises pressure on Moscow to negotiate a peace deal with Ukraine.
“I was not happy that India was buying oil, and he (Modi)assured me today that they will not be buying oil from Russia,” Trump told reporters during a White House event.
“That’s a big step. Now we’re going to get China to do the same thing.”
Oil prices rose around 1% on Thursday.
Russia accounted for 36% of India’s oil imports in the six months through September, or some 1.75 million barrels per day, trade data showed.
Imports are set to rise in October to 1.9 million bpd, Kpler data showed, as Russia ramped up exports after Ukrainian drones hit its refineries.
RUSSIA STILL CONFIDENT
Russia said on Thursday it was confident its energy partnership with India would continue.
“Our energy resource is in demand, it’s economically advantageous and practical, and I’m confident that our partners will continue to work with us,” Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said, referring to India.
India’s Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals said it was hunting for alternative sources sold at a discount while hoping to continue buying Russian oil.
(Reporting by Nidhi Verma in New Delhi; Additional reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar, Mayank Bhardwaj, Shivam Patel and Manoj Kumar; editing by Florence Tan and Jason Neely)
