Denis Alipov, Russia’s ambassador to India, said on Thursday that Moscow remains New Delhi’s largest oil supplier, with a market share of over 30%.
Alipov said this in an interview with TASS.
The ambassador said that Russia is ready to continue to provide New Delhi with the most favorable conditions for the purchase of energy resources.
“Despite the obstacles imposed by the West, we remain the largest supplier of oil to India,” the ambassador told TASS.
He added that US sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil may of course affect the redistribution of hydrocarbon flows, but economic feasibility always remains a priority for India.
“We assume that Russia will retain its status as one of the main suppliers of energy to the South Asian republic, while businessmen will be able to adapt to the existing format of interaction taking into account the current situation.”
On October 22, the USA imposed sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil — two of Russia’s largest oil producers – to cut off the Kremlin’s sources of funding for the Ukrainian war.
According to a European think tank, India spent up to 2.5 billion euros on oil purchases from Moscow in October, unchanged from the 2.5 billion euros spent on Russian oil purchases in September.
The Center for Energy and Clean Air Research (CREA) said in its monthly monitoring report that India remained the second largest buyer of Russian fossil fuels in October behind China.
“India remained the second largest buyer of Russian fossil fuels, importing a total of €3.1 billion. India’s purchases were dominated by crude oil at 81 percent (€2.5 billion), followed by coal at 11 percent (€351 million) and petroleum products at 7 percent (€222 million),” CREA said.
In October, US President Donald Trump repeated his claim that Delhi would significantly reduce energy purchases from Moscow.
Trump claimed that Delhi had assured him that it would significantly reduce oil imports from Russia.
However, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said that India is a major importer of oil and gas and Delhi’s abiding priority is to protect the interests of Indian consumers in an unstable energy scenario.
