NEW DELHI: India may cut down on crude imports from Russia in the next few months as payment issues persist and discounts continue to shrink, according to an official from the petroleum ministry. The official also said that the country is in talks with Iraq, which has been traditionally the biggest supplier of crude oil to India, for discounts. The talks are also on to increase the payment processing time from 60 days to 80 days.
“The discount on Russian crude fell drastically in the past few months. At the same time, there are payment issues as well, therefore India is cutting down oil imports from Russia,” said the official. India, the world’s third-largest crude importer, has been buying cheaper Russian oil since February 2022.
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine western countries stopped importing Russian oil, thus Russia diverted its supply to India and China. In April 2023, India’s import from Russia was more than that from its two biggest suppliers – Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Last month petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri after meeting his Iraqi counterpart Hayan Abdel-Ghani in New Delhi tweeted that India aims to increase (from the current 1 billion barrels) its annual oil purchases from Iraq.