India in talks to buy more oil at a discount from Russia: reports

Indian refiners are looking to gain a massive price advantage by buying oil at big discount from Russia as per reports.As oil prices continue to hover around $120/bbl and the rupee tumbles towards record lows, refiners as per a report on Bloomberg are looking to finalise a 6-month collectively supply contract for Russian crude to India with state firm Rosneft.

At a time when global crude prices are hovering at $120/bbl and rupee heads towards a record low, as an oil importer India has been looking to protect consumers that are hit by record high prices. India is not in violation of any sanction by purchasing this oil but has received criticism for it from western allies who want oil trade with Russia to stop.

“We don’t send people out there saying go buy Russian oil, we send people saying go buy oil,” Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs said at a conference on Friday. “Now you buy the best oil you can in the market. I don’t think I would attach a political messaging to that.”

As per Bloomberg India has bought more than 40 million barrels of Russian oil between late-February and early-May, which comes to about 20% more than flows for all of 2021.