India imports €49 billion worth of Russian oil in 3rd year of Ukraine invasion

India increased oil imports from Russia due to discounted prices post-Ukraine invasion, impacting global oil trade dynamics.

India, the world's third largest oil consuming and importing nation, bought crude oil worth €49 billion from Russia in the third year of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, a global think tank said.

India, which has traditionally sourced its oil from the Middle East, began importing a large volume of oil from Russia soon after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. This is primarily because Russian oil was available at a significant discount to other international benchmarks due to western sanctions and some European countries shunning purchases.

This led to India's imports of Russian oil seeing a dramatic rise, growing from less than 1% of its total crude oil imports to a staggering 40 per cent in a short period.

"Russia's stronghold over new markets has solidified in the third year of the invasion. The three biggest buyers, China (€78 billion), India (€49 billion) and Turkey (€34 billion) were responsible for 74% of Russia's total revenues from fossil fuels in the third year of the invasion," Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air said in its latest report.

The value of India's import saw an 8% year-on-year increase, it said.

Russia's total global fossil fuel earnings in the third year of the invasion reached €242 billion and have totalled €847 billion since the invasion of Ukraine.

Some of the refineries in India turned Russian crude oil into fuels like petrol and diesel that were exported to Europe and other G7 countries.