Hardeep Singh Puri, the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, refuted reports that India is having trouble paying Russia for its crude oil.
Delhi, New According to Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri, the decline in India’s oil imports from Russia was caused by unappealing pricing rather than issues with payments on January 3.
“There’s no issue with payment… At a news conference, “It is solely dependent on the price at which our refineries will purchase.”The only demand of India’s leadership is that the country’s consumers receive energy at the lowest possible cost, uninterrupted,” he stated, pointing out that the country typically purchases 1.5 million barrels of Russian oil per day. oil companies have not yet complained to him about any difficulties they are having paying for imported oil.
When five ships filled with light, sweet Sokol grade sailed to other destinations in December 2023, India’s imports of Russian oil reached an 11-month low. This was because the U.S. had imposed penalties on some ships and shippers for breaking the $60 per barrel price cap for oil at Russian ports.Following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, India—the third-largest oil importer and consumer in the world—became a leading purchaser of discounted seaborne Russian oil. He said that there will be no supply shortages because there is an abundance of oil on the world market.
Puri elaborated on the current state of affairs following the attacks in the Red Sea, saying, “12% of the world’s marine traffic originates in this extremely unstable circumstance. The Suez Canal and Red Sea routes accounted for 4–8% of all LNG shipments worldwide in 2023, and 8.2 million barrels of crude oil were transported daily via these routes.”