Despite pressure from the US and European partners, India has refused to abandon its energy partnership with Moscow as oil prices rise. Recently, India was forced to slam Bloomberg for causing tensions amidst India-Russia oil deal.
Last month, India’s foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, said that the amount of Russian oil New Delhi purchases in a month is below what EU purchases from Moscow “in an afternoon.”
The Indian government has slammed a recent media report on New Delhi’s energy ties with Moscow, calling it “part of a premeditated attempt to further destabilize an already fragile global oil market.”
The piece also made a significant contribution to “serving vested interests” including speculators, according to New Delhi, and would have a “negative impact” on global economic recovery.
“A recent article, following closely on the heels of a series of similar pieces by certain media platforms, makes conjectures and tries to sensationalise the routine purchase of crude oil by Indian oil companies from Russia based on concocted source-based stories,” India’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas said in a press statement (read below) on Wednesday.
Whilst New Delhi has not specified the publisher, the obvious allusion appears to be to Bloomberg, which is based in the United States. India’s state-run oil corporations have been pursuing Russian petroleum at a drastically reduced price of $70 per barrel, according to the journal. Anonymous sources are cited in the contentious report.
Brent Crude is currently trading at more than $106 per barrel, and is expected to rise even farther as a result of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s choice to impose an embargo on Russian oil imports into the 27-nation bloc as part of the sixth stage of sanctions against Moscow for its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Furthermore, according to the Bloomberg story, India has suggested increasing its overall oil imports from Russia to 15 million barrels per month (500,000 barrels per day) if Moscow agrees to price its crude under $70 per barrel.
India’s petroleum ministry has stated that crude imports from Russia account for a small percentage of the country’s total imports, and that the majority of New Delhi’s crude imports come from west Asian countries.
“In the recent past, the USA has become a major crude oil source for India, supplying almost $13 billion of energy imports, and almost 7.3 percent of market share of crude oil imports,” it continued.
India, the world’s third-largest oil user, imports over 85% of its crude from other nations.
The Indian statement emphasized India’s “enormous” energy requirements, which are estimated to be approximately 5 million barrels per day.
The official statement also asked everyone to avoid “politicising” India’s legitimate energy transactions, stressing that the US, EU, and other western partners were yet to prohibit outbound energy exports from Russia.
The Indian statement continued by expressing concern over the recent increase in petroleum prices.
“India has been constrained to pay ever-increasing prices charged by certain oil suppliers, which is leading India to diversify its sources of procurement. Meanwhile, energy demand in India remains inelastic,” said the press statement, noting that several nations in New Delhi’s neighbourhood were already feeling the pinch of rising crude prices, a reference to the economic crisis in Sri Lanka.
“If suddenly, now, as a huge importer of crude oil, India pulls back on its diversified sources, concentrating on the remaining, in an already constrained market, it will lead to further volatility and instability, jacking up international prices,” the ministry statement predicted.
Read the full statement below:
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