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India's largest refiner purchases Middle East and US crudes as Trump criticizes Russian purchases

Four trade sources reported on Monday that Indian Oil Corp had purchased 7 million barrels from the United States and Canada, as well as the Middle East. This comes at a time when U.S. president Donald Trump is intensifying his criticism of India over its purchases Russian oil.

India is the largest buyer of crude oil by sea from Russia. Russia is currently under Western sanctions due to its involvement in Ukraine.

Reports last week said that its main refiners stopped buying Russian oil as discounts from other suppliers shrank. Trump had threatened to impose hefty tariffs for imports of countries who make such purchases. Indian government officials denied that any policy changes had taken place.

Trump announced on Truth Social that he would increase the import tax on Indian goods. He accused the country of buying huge amounts of Russian crude oil and then "selling it on the Open Market at big profits" for the majority of the oil purchased.

India imported approximately 1.75 million barrels of Russian oil per day from January to June, an increase of 1% over the previous year, according to trade sources.

The sources confirmed that IOC, India’s largest refiner purchased crude oil via an auction from the United States and Canada for arrival in September. The sources declined to give their names because they weren't authorized to speak to media.

Sources said that the refiner purchased 4.5 million barrels U.S. crude oil, 500,000 barrels Western Canadian Select (WCS), and two million barrels Das oil produced in Abu Dhabi.

Two sources stated that the higher than normal purchases were partly made to replace Russian barrels.

Last week, it was reported that Indian refiners IOC, Hindustan Petroleum Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp, and Mangalore Refinery Petrochemical Ltd had not purchased Russian crude for the last few weeks.

Indian companies don't comment on oil purchases

The sources stated that in the IOC tender, which closed on Friday evening, P66, Equinor and Mercuria would each ship one million barrels U.S. West Texas Intermediate Midland Crude, while Mercuria would ship two million barrels. Vitol is to deliver 1,000,000 barrels each of WTI Midland, WCS and WCS.

Trafigura is delivering 2 million barrels Das.

The prices of the deals are not available immediately.

The Trump administration imposed a 25% tariff on Indian imports after New Delhi failed to agree on a trade agreement. Reporting by Florence Tan in Singapore, Siyi in New Delhi and Nidhi in New Delhi. Editing by Kate Mayberry & Emelia Sithole Matarise.

(source: Reuters)