India has increased its imports of Russian oil to a record high — Bloomberg
Russian oil shipments to India have reached an all-time high as local refineries seek to make the most of the grace period before it expires.
This is reported by Bloomberg.
According to data from the analytics firm Kpler, daily shipments of crude oil reached an unprecedented 2.3 million barrels in May.
This surge is due to a previously granted exemption that allowed the import of Russian oil that had already been loaded and had been stored on tankers at sea for an extended period.
The average daily volume of shipments for the entire current month is projected to be about 1.9 million barrels, which remains an extremely high figure for the region.
The global oil market has been significantly disrupted by the war in Iran, which has effectively blocked traditional supply routes from the Persian Gulf.
This has forced India, the world’s third-largest fuel importer, to seek alternative sources to stabilize domestic prices.
To curb the rapid rise in energy prices, U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration granted India an individual exemption from the ban on transactions involving Russian oil for the first time on March 5.
This exemption was subsequently extended to the global market, but it is set to expire on May 16.
If the U.S. exemptions are not extended, Indian refiners will face the need to purchase significantly more expensive crude on the spot market.
Sources report that leading state-owned companies, such as Indian Oil Corp. and Bharat Petroleum Corp., have already begun preemptively purchasing oil from West Africa and the U.S.
Global oil reserves could run out in a month
For the first time in history, the U.S. has begun releasing oil to other countries from its strategic reserves
