India did not fall in line with sanctions against Russia by the US and western powers. India has also been abstaining on the UN resolutions castigating Russia in view of the decades’ long close relations with Russia. India has also been able to explain its stand convincingly with the major economic powers, especially the US.
Russia has offered supplies of crude oil at deep discounts of nearly a third of international prices (around $35/barrel against around $ 105/barrel as global market price). This is specially welcome at the present juncture of surging inflation. This deep discount has helped India step up its imports of crude from Russia more than 25’fold to around 8 lakh barrels per day since the Ukraine-Russia conflict began.
There is yet another instance of the nimbleness of private refiners: Reliance Industries and Nayara that was acquired by the Russian oil giant Rosneft from the Essar Refineries. These two private refiners dropped their original plans to expand marketing operations in India due to the preferential treatment given by the Union government to public sector refineries of IndianOil, BPCL and HPCL. Reliance has built large global custom for refined petroleum products on handsome refining margins. Thanks to Reliance India, a large importer of crude oil has also emerged a sizeable exporter of refined products!
Even while the public sector refineries are bound by long term contracts with traditional suppliers from the Gulf, Africa and the Americas, Reliance and Nayara have been doing a roaring business, making merry with the much cheaper Russian crude! A Wall Street Journal report points to such refined Russian oil even reaching American shores! President Biden must check if his transport fleet uses this Russian oil.
Please click the following links to read other articles of June 2022:
Russian petrol for western Europe and even the US!
A sleepy township morphs into an industrial hubA sleepy township morphs into an industrial hub
Everything gigantic in Dubai – Dubai Travel by SV
Sweet News on the Sugar Sector
Conference with New CII President Sanjiv Bajaj
Women forge ahead – Recent civil services examination
