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Russian Oil Shipments to India Drop to 3-Year Low Amid US Sanctions Pressure
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Russian crude shipments to India are set to sink to their weakest level in three years in December as US sanctions pressure disrupts buying patterns and forces refiners to reshuffle supply, according to Bloomberg on December 30.
Deliveries are expected to average about 1.1 million barrels a day this month, the lowest since November 2022, based on shipping-data estimates from analytics firm Kpler.
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The slide follows recent months in which Indian buyers reduced demand for Russian crude while “grappling with heightened US scrutiny of the trade,” the outlet reported.
The downturn was amplified after Reliance Industries Ltd., India’s largest private refiner and previously the biggest buyer, paused purchases following late-October US sanctions on Rosneft PJSC and Lukoil PJSC and a one-month deadline for importers to wind down transactions with the two producers, Bloomberg said.
Kpler data also showed weaker flows to the HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd. Mundra oil terminal, while Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. took no Russian barrels in December for the first time since September 2022.
Kpler said Russian deliveries to India slowed to as little as 712,000 barrels a day in the second week of December before rising, after estimating imports at 1.8 million barrels a day in November.
Earlier, it was reported that India’s Reliance Industries resumed purchasing discounted Russian crude through non‑sanctioned suppliers after a brief pause triggered by US sanctions, routing oil to domestic refineries and softening the impact of import declines.
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