India Gets Russia’s Cheapest Oil Yet—Record $7 Discount After US Sanctions

Russia’s Urals crude is being offered to Indian refiners at the steepest discount in at least two years, as US sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil disrupt the trade that had become central to India’s post-2022 oil imports, Bloomberg reported on November 24.

According to people familiar with the matter, Urals cargoes for December loading and January delivery are now being offered at up to $7 below Dated Brent on a delivered basis. Before the latest sanctions, the discount hovered near $3 a barrel.

Most Indian refiners initially halted purchases of crude that would arrive after the sanctions took effect last week, sharply constraining a trade that had flourished as India capitalized on Russia’s discounted oil following its invasion of Ukraine, according to Bloomberg.

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But the deepening price cuts have begun to shift attitudes: some refiners are again open to buying Russian barrels, provided they come from suppliers not on US blacklists. Only about one-fifth of available cargoes meet that threshold, sources told Bloomberg.

India has recently increased imports from the Middle East to compensate for reduced Russian flows. Urals crude continues to be shipped from Russia’s western ports.

Previously, it was reported that India’s energy giant Reliance Industries has fully stopped importing Russian crude oil into its massive Jamnagar refining complex, ending purchases ahead of a new wave of US, UK, and EU sanctions targeting Moscow’s oil sector, the company told Reuters.

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