Oil prices rose around 1 per cent on Thursday after US President Donald Trump said PM Modi had pledged his country would stop buying oil from Russia, a move that could drain supply elsewhere.
Brent crude futures rose 54 cents, or 0.87 per cent, to $62.45 a barrel by 0430 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures climbed 57 cents, or 0.98 per cent, to $58.84.
Both contracts touched their lowest since early May in the previous session on US-China trade tensions and after the International Energy Agency warned of a big surplus next year as OPEC+ producers and rivals lift output amid weak demand.
Trump said on Wednesday that India – which taps its top supplier Russia for about one-third of its oil imports – would halt oil purchases from Russia, and the US would next try to get China to do the same as Washington intensifies efforts to cut off Moscow’s energy revenues and pressure it to negotiate a peace deal in Ukraine.
The Indian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to emailed questions about whether Modi had made such a commitment to Trump.
Some Indian refiners are preparing to cut Russian oil imports, with expectations of a gradual reduction, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also said on Wednesday that he told Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato that the Trump administration expects Japan to stop importing Russian energy.
India and China are the two top buyers of Russian seaborne crude exports, which are sanctioned by the US and European Union. For months, Modi resisted US pressure to stop buying Russian oil, with Indian officials defending the purchases as vital to national energy security.
“At the margin, this is a positive development for the crude oil price as it would remove a big buyer (India) of Russian oil,” said Tony Sycamore, a market analyst at IG.
The UK government also announced new sanctions on Wednesday, directly targeting Russia’s Rosneft and Lukoil – two of the world’s biggest energy companies.
The sanctioned entities include four oil terminals, the private refiner Shandong Yulong Petrochemical in China, 44 tankers in the “shadow fleet” transporting Russian oil, and Nayara Energy Limited, a Russian-owned refinery in India.
Later on Thursday, investors will be watching for the weekly US inventory statistics release from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) after mixed data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) trade group.
US crude and gasoline stocks rose while distillate inventories fell last week, market sources said, citing API figures on Wednesday.
Crude stocks rose by 7.36 million barrels in the week ended October 10 and gasoline inventories increased by 2.99 million barrels, while distillate inventories fell by 4.79 million barrels from a week earlier, the sources said.
While lower distillate inventories point to stronger demand for diesel, a buildup in crude oil and gasoline stocks suggests demand in the US, the world’s top oil consumer, remains sluggish.
Analysts forecast that US crude stockpiles rose by about 0.3 million barrels last week.
