Indian Oil Corp (IOC), the country's top refiner, has bought 7 million barrels of September-arrival crude from the United States, Canada and the Middle East via a tender, Reuters reported on Monday citing “several trade sources”.
The IOC's purchase comes after the arbitrage window for US crude to Asia opened and as Indian state refiners paused buying of Russian crude oil on narrowing discounts, per Reuters.
India is the world's third-largest oil importer and the biggest buyer of seaborne Russian crude.
The news of US crude purchase came even as White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller told Fox News: “What he [US President Donald Trump] said very clearly is that it is not acceptable for India to continue financing this war by purchasing the oil from Russia.”
The IOC bought 4.5 million barrels of US crude, 500,000 barrels of Canada's Western Canadian Select and two million barrels of Das oil produced in Abu Dhabi, Reuters quoted sources as saying.
“The higher-than-normal purchases are partly to replace Russian barrels, two of the sources said,” according to Reuters.
The news of the IOC’s purchase comes a day after Reuters, citing two Indian government sources, reported that Delhi will keep purchasing oil from Moscow despite Trump's threats of penalties.
"These are long-term oil contracts," one of the sources told Reuters then. "It is not so simple to just stop buying overnight."
The New York Times also quoted two unnamed senior Indian officials as saying on Saturday that there had been no change in Indian government policy.
One official was quoted as telling NYT that the government in Delhi had "not given any direction to oil companies" to cut back imports from Russia.
Earlier last week, Reuters had reported that Indian state refiners had stopped buying Russian oil recently after discounts narrowed in July.
The external affairs ministry spokesperson was diplomatic when asked during the weekly briefing on Friday about Russian crude purchases.
"On our energy sourcing requirements ... we look at what is there available in the markets, what is there on offer, and also what is the prevailing global situation or circumstances," Randhir Jaiswal told reporters then.