India, Russia energy trade goes into two-way mode

New Delhi, Aug 30 (IANS) With Ukrainian drone attacks on its oil refineries creating major supply chain disruptions in its energy sector, Russia, looking to keep its energy trade running, has turned to India as a partner with both the demand and the industrial capacity to help absorb the shock, according to an article.

Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries have pushed Moscow to import Indian gasoline to the tune of over a million barrels in June–July, turning a one-way crude flow into a two-way energy trade that can trim India’s trade deficit with Russia, stated the article in Eurasia Review by Nikola Mikovic.

Before the Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Europe was the main destination for Russian energy exports. In 2021, Russia accounted for 25.8 per cent of the European Union’s oil imports, making it the bloc’s largest oil supplier. But the sanctions imposed by the West after the war have dramatically transformed Russia’s energy trade.

While in the past, the Indian market was on the periphery of Russia’s energy policy, it has now become a major part of Russia’s energy relationship with Asia. However, after Europe cut Russian oil, India became Moscow’s second-largest crude buyer (about 1.8–2.8 million barrels a day recently), versus only around 84,000 barrels per day before 2022.

The world’s most populated country is now the second-largest buyer of Russian oil globally. Statistics show that in 2024 and 2025 India imported $56.87 billion of crude oil from Russia, with daily volumes averaging between 1.8 million and 2.1 million barrels, Mikovic said in his article.

In August, according to reports, India bought almost two million barrels per day of crude oil from Russia, more than three times the amount it imported from its second-largest supplier, the United Arab Emirates.

On August 25, following Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s visit to Moscow, New Delhi received assurances that Russia will continue to “uninterruptedly supply energy to India”, which reflects the importance Moscow attaches to the energy trade with India.

The article also highlights that India is also buying more LPG and LNG from the US after the Strait of Hormuz disruption and expanding renewables, which the author says gives New Delhi more room to deal with both Russia and Washington.

–IANS

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