India has asked state-owned refiners to consider buying more crude oil from the United States and Venezuela as it moves to diversify its oil supply amid evolving trade discussions with Washington, Bloomberg has reported.
Refinery executives familiar with the matter said the government has encouraged refiners to give preference to US oil grades when sourcing crude from the spot market through tenders. Officials have made a similar suggestion for Venezuelan crude, though those cargoes would be arranged through private negotiations with traders.
The request comes after US President Donald Trump said India agreed to halt imports of Russian crude as part of a broader trade understanding — a claim India has not formally confirmed, instead maintaining that its energy decisions are driven by diversification and energy security priorities.
However, Indian refiners face constraints in how much US and Venezuelan oil they can take. Many Indian refineries are configured to process medium and heavier crudes, while US barrels tend to be lighter with lower sulphur content, making them less ideally suited to current infrastructure. Longer shipping distances and higher freight costs also raise questions about the near-term economic viability of significantly increasing purchases from these sources.
Executives told Bloomberg that Indian processors could potentially handle about 20 million tonnes a year of US crude — roughly 400,000 barrels per day — which would be higher than recent volumes. However, cheaper and closer alternatives from West Africa and Kazakhstan remain competitive in sourcing decisions.
Indian refiners including Indian Oil Corp., Bharat Petroleum Corp. and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. have already moved to source Venezuelan crude recently, buying around 4 million barrels in aggregate, although this represents close to the upper limit of what state refiners can process monthly from the heavier Latin American grades.
