 "russian crude oil")
India’s strong relations with West Asian nations and the compulsion by President Donald Trump to ramp up crude oil purchases led to Indian refiners clocking multi-year high imports from the US as well as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in August, according to industry sources and market data.
The surge in purchase of costly, higher quality US oil comes even as Industry Minister Piyush Goyal expressed optimism of concluding a bilateral trade agreement with the US by November. After this pact, purchase of oil and US LNG would play a key role. And, the move to source more oil from the UAE, which markets crude varieties that can substitute India’s staple Russian Urals, offers a hedge to state oil companies, which are often caught in geopolitical crossfires, a senior official from a state refiner said.
The US loaded nearly 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) of predominantly light, sweet grades like WTI Midland last month, the highest since November 2022, when loadings from US ports averaged 486,000 bpd, maritime intelligence agency Kpler data showed. That compares to 222,000 bpd loadings a year earlier and just 166,000 bpd in July.
West Asian oil producers like Saudi Arabia and UAE are located close to India and have the volumes to offer in case of crises, said R Ramachandran, former head of refining at Bharat Petroleum.
US oil is an opportunistic buy, and typically booked two months in advance to accommodate longer transport times, he added.
Russia was the biggest supplier of crude oil to India this year, accounting for around 37 per cent until August followed by Iraq, Saudi Arabia, UAE and the US.
Russian exports to India in the January-August period declined by only 3.3 per cent from a year earlier period but supplies from the US and UAE jumped by 26 per cent and 22 per cent, respectively. Shipments to India increased year-on-year (Y-o-Y) in six of the eight months this year for both nations, according to calculations based on data from Kpler.
Russian exports have slumped since a 2025 high in March. March and August witnessed a spurt in UAE supplies to India, coinciding with stringent sanctions by Washington in both cases — the outgoing Joe Biden administration imposed severe strictures on Russian oil flows in January-February and Trump’s tariff threats began mid-year. US purchases jumped in August, led by competitive prices.
But the composition of trade has changed. State refiners, led by Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum, denied ample access to Russian crude because of shrinking supplies and discounts have leaned on UAE’s Murban grade. This is a potential substitute for Russian Urals, a senior trader at a state refiner said. In addition, it has scooped up most of the light, sweet US grades on offer, used to blend with heavier oils.
In contrast, Reliance Industries and Rosneft-run Nayara Energy have primarily sourced Russian oil and some heavy, high sulphur cheap oil from Canada and exported via the US because of their advanced refinery configurations.
Exports of US oil to India increased by an average 71,000 bpd until August compared to the entire 2024, the data showed. The value of incremental volumes calculated on the basis of this year’s average landed price of US oil at $79.3 per barrel in India amounted to $1.2 billion.
India paid $6.4 billion for US crude during the January-July period, according to data from Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics. India's overall imports from the US in FY25 totalled $45.6 billion, and the resulting $40.9 billion trade surplus has been a source of friction with Washington.
The UAE, with whom India has a free trade agreement and strong trade ties, shipped 532,000 bpd last month, the highest since it loaded 542,000 bpd in May 2022.
Exports from UAE were also around 24 per cent higher compared to a year earlier and 12 per cent higher month-on-month (M-o-M).
Different price points
But, UAE and US grades are much more expensive than Russian oil on a landed basis in India, Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCIS) data showed.
Russian oil averaged $71.3 per barrel in January-July 2025, $7 per barrel cheaper than UAE grades and $8 per barrel cheaper than US oil. Russian oil, despite shrinking discounts of around $2.50/barrel, half of last year’s average levels, is still competitive. That partly explains why Russian oil flows to India are still holding up.
Russia shipped around 1.5 million bpd of crude oil in August despite the imposition of secondary tariffs by the Trump administration and European Union sanctions in July, according to Kpler and Vortexa.
These levels are just 14 per cent lower than the average 1.75 million bpd that Russia shipped to India this year until August, calculations based on shipping data shows.
Indian refining officials said the Centre does not give directions on oil imports except that the most economical oil should be sourced, while avoiding sanctioned nations Iran and Venezuela. They emphasised that light US crude grades were very competitive because of weaker US WTI crude benchmark levels compared to a stronger Dubai benchmark, used to price Gulf crude oils.
Prices of light Sweet Ice Brent crude futures dipped below Medium Sour Dubai crude swaps in August for the first time in four months. This increased the viability of shipping arbitrage crude from the Atlantic basin to Asia-Pacific, UK-based market intelligence agency Argus said in a report. Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum purchased at least 6 million barrels of spot WTI crude for November arrival in late August, the agency said, reflecting continuing interest among Indian refiners for US oil.
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