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India's top refiner claims that Russia's oil spot supply is normal

Anuj Jain is the head of finance for Indian Oil Corp, India's largest refiner. He said that spot supplies of Russian oil have not changed. Barrels are still trading at a $2-$3 discount per barrel in Dubai, and will be delivered to Indian ports.

India, which is the world's largest purchaser of Russian crude oil, has benefited from discounts on Russian production as Europe and the U.S. shun Russian oil due to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Washington has pressured India into stopping buying Russian oil by imposing heavy tariffs on Indian exports. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stated that the government will continue to buy Moscow's crude because it is economically viable.

IOC, the state-run oil company, buys Russian crude from traders on a delivery basis.

According to LSEG trade flow, the loading of Russian oil to India in August almost halved from 1.34 million barrels per day in July to 686.850 barrels per daily.

The August loading of Russian crude oil for India was low, as refiners stopped purchases after discounts shrank.

"We never stopped (buying Russian crude). Jain said that we are already planning to buy for November and October.

He said that IOC must reduce its imports of Russian crude oil due to the high inventories.

We wanted to optimize our inventory as well. Jain explained in Hindi that this was one of the major factors. (Reporting and writing by Mohi Naira in Singapore, Nidhh Verma, Editing by Sonali Pau)

(source: Reuters)