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India’s oil imports from US drop as Russian crude dominates despite tariff pressures
India’s crude oil imports from the US fell sharply in August even as Russian barrels continued to dominate the country’s energy basket, according to shipping analytics firm Kpler.
US crude shipments to India dropped 37% month-on-month and 38% year-on-year to just 230,000 barrels per day (bpd).
At the same time, India imported 1.7 million bpd from Russia, up 6% from July, though still 4% lower than a year earlier. India’s overall crude imports stood at 4.5 million bpd in August, lower than the previous month.
This, even as trade relations got worse with Washington, which imposed an additional 25% tariff on imports from India, which came into force on August 27, for alleged large-scale purchases of discounted Russian oil despite Western sanctions.
India, however, refuted these allegations, maintaining that its crude buying strategy is driven by national energy security needs and cost competitiveness. Condemning the tariffs as “unfair and unreasonable”, India claimed that the US and Europe’s own imports from Russia.
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