Russia has doubled the discounts on its oil for India in exchange for India's purchase of gasoline

Indian oil refineries have found themselves in an extremely advantageous position by agreeing to supply motor fuel to the aggressor country to help it overcome its domestic fuel crisis. At the same time, Russia has been forced to significantly lower the prices of its crude oil for New Delhi. 

Over the past two weeks, the discount on Russia’s flagship Urals crude at Indian ports has nearly doubled—from $4 to $7 per barrel relative to the Brent benchmark. 

The main reasons cited for the drop in prices are an oversupply in the Asian market and a massive influx of oil from the Persian Gulf countries, which have begun actively selling off reserves from tankers which had been blocked in the Strait of Hormuz for over two months due to regional tensions. Although current discounts have not yet reached the peak of $10 per barrel recorded during the height of U.S. sanctions, they are still several times higher than last summer’s figures ($1–3 per barrel). Thanks to Moscow’s pricing policy, India has already saved approximately $13 billion between 2022 and 2025.

This price collapse coincided with the start of unprecedented fuel exports in the opposite direction. Amid a massive fuel shortage within Russia caused by regular Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian refineries, Moscow has become an importer of petroleum products. According to investigators, at least 60,000 metric tons of automotive gasoline have already been shipped from India to Russian ports aboard two large tankers. In this way, Indian companies are reaping a double profit: they buy cheap Russian raw materials and sell finished petroleum products to the Kremlin at market prices.

This was reported by Reuters.

As a reminder, the fuel shortage in Crimea has triggered a wave of mass layoffs and business closures.

Earlier, the Russian presidential administration sent special “recommendations” to state-run and pro-government media outlets regarding how exactly to report on the fuel shortage in the country.

Meanwhile, the fuel crisis is intensifying in Russia: gasoline is running out at gas stations and lines are growing longer.

Russia has allowed the use of lower-quality gasoline due to the fuel crisis.