India imports nearly 88% of its crude, with Russian oil emerging as a key source after 2022. Moscow said India is free to diversify, but replacing Russian volumes is not commercially simple.
Russia on Wednesday said India is free to source crude from any country it chooses and that New Delhi’s effort to diversify oil suppliers is neither new nor directed at Moscow. The statement came after US President Donald Trump claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had agreed to stop buying Russian oil and instead purchase crude from the United States and possibly Venezuela under a trade understanding.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia has never been India’s sole energy partner and dismissed suggestions that a shift in sourcing would be unusual.
“We, along with all other international energy experts, are well aware that Russia is not the only supplier of oil and petroleum products to India. India has always purchased these products from other countries. Therefore, we see nothing new here,” Peskov said while addressing a presser.
Trade Minister Piyush Goyal recently pointed out that India is broadening its energy mix to adapt to shifting global conditions and safeguard energy security for its citizens.
Peskov, however, said Moscow has not received any official communication from India about ending Russian oil purchases. He had made a similar point a day earlier, stressing that no such signal had come from New Delhi.
Backing continued cooperation, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the hydrocarbons trade serves both countries.
“India’s purchase of Russian hydrocarbons is beneficial for both sides and helps maintain stability in the global energy market. We are ready to continue close cooperation with our Indian partners,” she said at a briefing.
‘FULL OIL REPLACEMENT IMPRACTICAL’
Meanwhile, energy analysts in Russia said that a full replacement of Russian crude is impractical for Indian refiners.
Igor Yushkov of the National Energy Security Fund said US shale exports are largely light grades, while Russia supplies heavier, sulphur-rich Urals crude used by Indian refineries. “India would need to blend US oil with other grades, which raises costs. A simple substitution is not possible,” he said.
Yushkov added that Russia typically ships between 1.5 and 2 million barrels per day to India, volumes the US cannot easily match. “It looks like Trump is trying to project the talks as a win entirely on US terms,” he said.
He also recalled that when Russia redirected supplies to India from Europe and the US in 2022, it cut output by about one million barrels per day, pushing global prices to around USD 120 a barrel and sending US petrol and diesel prices to record highs.
Trump had last year imposed steep tariffs on India over New Delhi’s purchases of Russian energy, which the White House maintains is financing Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine. Recently, Trump announced a trade deal, cutting tariffs on Indian imports from 50 per cent to 18 per cent, effective immediately.
India imports nearly 88 per cent of the crude it processes into fuels such as petrol and diesel. Russian oil accounted for just 0.2 per cent of India’s imports until 2021, but after Western countries shunned Moscow following its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, India emerged as the largest buyer of discounted Russian crude.
According to data from real-time analytics firm Kpler, India’s Russian crude imports slipped to about 1.1 million barrels per day in the first three weeks of January, down from an average 1.21 million bpd the previous month and from more than 2 million bpd seen in mid-2025.
