Bloomberg: Indian refineries restart Russian crude purchases at $5 discount

State-owned Indian refiners Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum resume buying Russian crude at around $5 per barrel discount.

Payments were made in UAE dirhams and US dollars through new trading entities, with Russia earning an average of $40–45 per barrel under these deals, Bloomberg reports, citing sources.

The purchases indicate a cautious return to Russian oil by some Indian refineries, although overall spot buying remains limited as refiners assess changes in the sanctions landscape.

An unspecified number of cargoes were secured at the roughly $5-per-barrel discount from new trading firms, compared with a $3-per-barrel discount a month ago.

Sources say India’s total Russian crude imports are unlikely to exceed a third of the pace seen for most of this year, staying below 600,000 barrels per day.

Purchases by the sanctioned refinery Nayara Energy Ltd., partly owned by Rosneft PJSC, typically account for more than half of that total.

Some Indian refineries, including Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. and HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd., continue to completely avoid Russian crude.

The US has blacklisted four of Russia’s largest oil producers—Rosneft, Lukoil PJSC, Surgutneftegaz, and Gazprom Neft—prompting banks working with Indian refiners to tighten scrutiny on related trades.

These stricter sanctions are also likely to end Russia’s recent status as India’s top crude supplier, creating room for other exporters, such as Saudi Arabia, to regain a larger market share.

By Jeyhun Aghazada