India will continue to buy cheaper crude from Russia, and will give priority to its economic interests

India will decide on the purchase of crude oil from Russia only based on its interests. This simply means that after February 2022, the pace at which it has started buying more crude oil from Russia, that pace will continue even further. The latest figures show that from February to May 2022, India has purchased almost eight times more crude from Russia. Although there is a possibility that the pressure on India will be increased by the countries of the European Union, which have announced a 90 percent cut in crude purchases from Russia, the intention of the Indian government is visible that for the time being it should give priority to its economic interests. Will give This issue is also likely to be placed before India very prominently during PM Narendra Modi's participation in the Germany Group-7 countries meeting later this month.

Sources in oil companies say that there is no pressure on them from the government as to where to buy crude and from where not. They have just been given an instruction that according to the interests of the country, wherever they are getting cheap crude, they should buy from there. This is very important for a country like India because the price of crude has a lot of impact on its economy. Currently, the price of crude oil in the international market is around $ 120-121 per barrel. Whereas the Government of India has made a full assessment of its budget for the year 2022-23 on the basis that crude prices will remain at $ 75 per barrel. India buys 85 percent of its crude oil requirement from outside. In such a situation, the discount received at crude prices means a lot to him. It is believed that taking crude from Russia is costing India $ 20-25 per barrel as compared to the international market.

An agency releasing international trade data has said that India had bought 3 million barrels of crude from Russia in February 2022, which was just three percent of its total purchases, which increased to 24 million barrels in May 2022. This is about 20 percent of the total crude imports from India. It is likely to increase further in the current month. Like India, China is also buying crude from Russia on a large scale. Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have urged India to inform them about how it is procuring crude from Russia. The Pakistan government has also said that they are also ready to buy cheaper crude from Russia, but the proposal should come from Russia itself. All these countries are dependent on imported crude oil for their consumption and are considering the crude coming from Russia at low rates as very useful.

Let us tell you that since the Ukraine-Russia war, America and European countries have been pressurizing India not to do any energy business with Russia. India has argued that it buys very few energy products from Russia. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had said that as much oil and gas as India buys from Russia throughout the year, European countries buy in one afternoon. Now European countries have decided that by December 2022, they will buy up to 90 percent of gas and oil from Russia.

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