India has no plans to pay in Rupees for Russian crude oil: Govt

"At present, Oil Public Sector Undertakings neither have any contract nor is any such proposal under consideration from Russia or any other country for the purchase of crude oil in Indian Rupees (INR)," Teli stated in a written reply. He did not elaborate any further on the issue.

New Delhi: India has no plans to pay in Rupees for the crude oil from Russia bought by its public sector companies, Minister of State, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Rameswar Teli said in Rajya Sabha on Monday. "At present, Oil Public Sector Undertakings neither have any contract nor is any such proposal under consideration from Russia or any other country for the purchase of crude oil in Indian Rupees (INR)," Teli stated in a written reply. He did not elaborate any further on the issue.

Earlier, the State-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) brought two parcels or shiploads of distressed Russian oil through traders at heavy discounts. IOC bought 3 million barrels in each trade through European trader Vitol. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd separately purchased 2 million barrels of Russian crude Urals through a trader. Due to the Western sanctions on Russia in the aftermath of its military operation in Ukraine, many countries have shunned Russian oil which led to Russian crude being available in the market at deep discounts.

In a bid to capitalize on the situation, Indian refiners are floating tenders to buy such discounted oil. The tenders are mostly won by traders, who would have stocked inventories of the cheap Russian oil. Since 2020, IOC has had a term or fixed volume deal to buy crude oil from Russia's Rosneft. But, it rarely imported volumes under the term deal as the cost of transporting the oil from Russia made it uneconomical. But, discounts of USD 20-25 per barrel have turned the tide in favour of Russian crude and Indian refiners are lapping it up, sources said.

(With agency inputs)