LNG may help, but US crude oil unlikely to bridge trade gap fast

Crude oil from the US is a tough buy in today's environment - supplies to India have already dropped by half from 2021 levels

US President Donald Trump urged his Indian counterpart, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, last week to increase purchases of energy to trim a $36.7 billion trade surplus in India’s favour — a demand Trump made during his first term as US president. 

India made a big start in 2018, a year after Trump took office, with US crude oil imports jumping fivefold and peaking at 415,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2021 when he left office. 

The question is: Can we expect such big gains in India’s purchases of oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Trump’s second term? The answer,