Russian Oil Exports To India Collapse Threefold

After Trump's words and EU sanctions.

Duties on goods from India imposed by Donald Trump demanding a halt to Russian oil purchases, as well as European Union sanctions against Rosneft's Indian refinery, have led to a sharp drop in crude supplies to the country.

Average daily exports of Urals crude, which India buys with delivery from Russia's Black Sea and Baltic ports, fell to 400,000 barrels in August, Bloomberg reported, citing Kpler ship-tracking data. Meanwhile, average purchases so far this year have averaged 1.18 million barrels.

The same level (about 1.2 million bpd) supplies held in June and July. But in the middle of last month, the EU imposed sanctions against Russia, which include a ban on purchases of fuel refined from its oil and restrictive measures against India's third-largest refiner Nayara Energy. Its main shareholders are Rosneft and United Capital Partners Ilya Shcherbovich fund. After that, counterparties began to refuse to supply feedstock to Nayara's refineries. And the new blow came from Trump's duties, who first simply imposed 25% rates on Indian imports to the US and then doubled them, demanding a halt to purchases of Russian oil.

In August, Nayara received only four shipments of Russian Urals grade, and no new deliveries are expected before the end of the month, Bloomberg wrote a week ago, citing ship brokers and analysts. As a result, the Nayara refinery may receive an average of 94,000 barrels of oil per day in August, a record low (the company received almost 366,000 barrels in the third quarter of last year).

China's refineries have intercepted some Urals supplies, although it is still a long way from compensating for all the barrels not bought by India. China mainly buys other Russian grades from the Far East and the Arctic. But its Urals purchases have increased to 75,000 bpd since early August. That's almost double the 40,000 barrels, the average since the beginning of the year, but more than 5 times less than even India's current purchases.

Trump is not yet ready to impose duties against China. He confirmed this after meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday. Mukesh Sahdev, director of commodity markets at Rystad Energy, said:

"One thing is for sure, Trump will not do something he knows he cannot achieve. By pressuring India, he has certainly achieved his goal and is able to have an impact [on it], but pressuring China? Probably not."

You can support the website Charter97.org

MULTI-CURRENCY ACCOUNT FOR ASSISTANCE:

Bank's name: Bank Millennium S.A.
Address: ul. Stanislawa Zaryna, 2A, 02-593, Warszawa
IBAN: PL97116022020000000216711123
SWIFT: BIGBPLPW
Name of the account holder: Fundacja “KARTA ‘97”
Purpose/title of payment: Donation for statuary aims

You can contact us by the e-mail charter97@gmail.com