Puri warns Russian oil cut off could push prices to $130-$140/barrel

Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday cautioned that taking Russian supplies off the market could push oil prices to $130-140 per barrel, detailing the potential impact of secondary sanctions.

- SIMONTINI BHATTACHARJEE

He added that U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats were not yet a cause for concern for India.

At the same time, he said India does not see any oil supply disruption if its Russian crude imports get impacted as the country has diverse sources of oil and enough supply is available in the global market. Puri's comments come a day after NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that countries like India, China, and Brazil could be hit very hard by secondary sanctions if they continued to do business with Russia.

The NATO chief's remarks come amid tariff uncertainties and global trade wars with the US, and India's own trade with Russia, particularly oil imports. In recent times, there have been concerns in India over a controversial Bill in the US that proposed 500 per cent tariffs on Countries that continue to trade with Russia. More recently, US President Trump also threatened "biting" secondary tariffs at the rate of 100 per cent on buyers of Russian exports unless there is a Russia-Ukraine peace deal within 50 days.

On the international front, Puri defended India's insistence on going ahead with crude oil imports from Russia despite Western criticism, in terms of both legality and national interest.