Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has bought 7 million barrels of crude from the United States, Canada and the West Asia, four trade sources said on Monday, as US President Donald Trump ramped up his criticism for New Delhi over its purchases of Russian oil.
India is the biggest buyer of seaborne crude from Russia, which is under Western-led sanctions over its war in Ukraine. India imported about 1.75 million barrels per day of Russian oil from January to June this year, up 1 per cent from a year ago, according to data provided by trade sources.
IOC, India’s largest refiner, bought crude via a tender from the United States, Canada and West Asia for September arrival, the trade sources said on Monday.
They declined to be named because they were not authorised to speak to the media.
The refiner bought 4.5 million barrels of US crude, 500,000 barrels of Western Canadian Select (WCS) and two million barrels of Das oil produced in Abu Dhabi, the sources said.
The higher-than-normal purchases are partly to replace Russian barrels, two of the sources said. Indian state refiners—IOC, HPCL, BPCL and Mangalore Refinery Petrochemical—had not sought Russian crude around the past week.
