India in 'wait-and-watch' mode on US sanctions against Russian crude

India, one of Moscow’s largest oil purchasers, is starting to suspend some of its oil imports from Russia to mollify US President Donald Trump while it works on renegotiating a trade deal with the US.

- Rohini Mohan India Correspondent

After the Trump administration imposed new sanctions on two of Moscow’s biggest oil producers, Rosneft and Lukoil, last week, India’s largest private oil refiner Reliance said on Oct 23 it would halt its purchases of Russian crude — 40 per cent of which comes from Rosneft and Lukoil.

Indian state-owned oil refinery IndianOil also announced its commitment on Oct 28 to adhere to international sanctions, though it stopped short of saying it would no longer buy discounted Russian oil.

Any trim though is unlikely to be substantial for now, suggesting New Delhi may be taking an incremental approach while demonstrating good faith in trade talks.

Kpler, a data analytics firm that tracks oil tankers, found no visible sign of a slowdown in the flow of oil from Russia, with October imports tracking around 1.8 million barrels a day.

Meanwhile, its crude oil imports from the US reached 540,000 barrels a day, the highest since 2022.

New Delhi is “playing a wait-and-watch game”, hoping the cutbacks on Russian oil for now will sweeten its trade deal with the US, Ms Vandana Hari, who founded the energy consultancy Vanda Insights, told The Straits Times.

India, which derives a third of its oil usage from Russia, faces a delicate balancing act of keeping its energy supply and bills stable, while also placating the US in its effort to dent Moscow’s ability to fund its war against Ukraine.

New Delhi has not officially commented on any purchase adjustments.

The US imposed 50 per cent tariffs on goods imported from India from August, half of which are penal tariffs for purchasing Russian crude.