New Delhi, Aug 2 After US President Donald Trump claimed that India has stopped purchasing Russian oil, government sources on Saturday clarified there is no such pause on the oil imports from Russia.
According to government sources, “India’s energy purchases are driven by national interests and market forces. We do not have any reports of Indian oil firms halting Russian imports”.
There was, however, no official statement from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Trump’s statement.
“I understand that India is no longer going to be buying oil from Russia. That’s what I heard, I don’t know if that’s right or not. That is a good step. We will see what happens,” Trump told reporters in Washington, DC.
Trump has threatened 100 per cent tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil unless Moscow reaches a major peace deal with Ukraine.
MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Friday that “You are aware of our broad approach to energy sourcing requirements, that we look at what is available in the market and the prevailing global situation. We are not aware of any specifics”.
Some reports have suggested that Indian refiners (Indian Oil Corp, Hindustan Petroleum Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp and Mangalore Refinery Petrochemical Ltd) have stopped buying Russian oil in the past week. India is the biggest buyer of Russian crude.
According to sources, “the four refiners regularly buy Russian oil on a delivered basis and have turned to spot markets for replacement supply – mostly Middle Eastern grades such as Abu Dhabi’s Murban crude and West African oil”.
India sources its oil purchases based on global market offerings to meet its energy.
“Our ties with any country stand on their merit and should not be seen from the prism of a third country. As far as India-Russia relations are concerned, we have a steady and time-tested partnership,” said MEA spokesperson Jaiswal said on Friday.
“India and the United States share a comprehensive global strategic partnership anchored in shared interests, democratic values, and robust people-to-people ties,” Jaiswal said in the weekly media briefing.
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