India is prioritizing the interest of its consumers in its policies to source energy products, the Indian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday, after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that India had agreed to cut imports of Russian crude oil.
President Trump said on Wednesday that India had agreed to reduce its imports of Russian energy after months of stating it would not do so.
According to the U.S. President, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured him that Indian refiners would stop buying Russian crude “within a short period of time”.
Russian oil imports account for about a third of all crude arrivals in India, which has significantly boosted Russian crude buying in the past three years.
Some refiners in India have started to prepare to reduce their purchases of Russian crude, Reuters reported today, citing unnamed sources in the know. The sources said the reduction would be gradual.
Officially, India on Thursday neither confirmed nor denied that it would indeed cut or halt imports of Russian crude.
In response to comments on India’s energy sourcing, Randhir Jaiswal, an official spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry, said “India is a significant importer of oil and gas. It has been our consistent priority to safeguard the interests of the Indian consumer in a volatile energy scenario. Our import policies are guided entirely by this objective.”
The spokesperson noted that “Ensuring stable energy prices and secured supplies have been the twin goals of our energy policy. This includes broad-basing our energy sourcing and diversifying as appropriate to meet market conditions.”
The only reference to the United States in the short statement from the Indian ministry was “Where the US is concerned, we have for many years sought to expand our energy procurement. This has steadily progressed in the last decade. The current Administration has shown interest in deepening energy cooperation with India. Discussions are ongoing.”
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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