Puri defends India’s stand on importing oil from Russia, says India not bothered by sanctions

New Delhi: In an interview with BBC Hard Talk anchor Stephen Sackur, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri vehemently defended India’s stand on importing oil from Russia, stating that the latest round of sanctions imposed on two Russian entities by the outgoing Biden administration in the US does not make India ‘vulnerable.’ On being asked to comment on India’s dependence on cheap crude oil imports from sanctioned Russia “against the wishes of the US,” the minister said, “Let me enlighten you about what the United States told us about importing oil from Russia. They told us and many others to buy as much oil as we like from Russia as long as we bought it at a reasonable price. That was music to my ears.”

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India importing crude oil from 39 nations

The minister said that India’s position in the crude oil market is that of a large consumer whose energy demand, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), is going to constitute 25 percent of the total increase in energy demand globally, so it’s not ‘vulnerable’ anymore. “We have diversified our sources of supply from 27 to 39 countries. Our imports from Russia were at 38 percent at one point of time, but it’s coming down. But today with the availability of oil, nobody is vulnerable anymore. There is more oil coming into the international market now. Today there are there is more oil in the market, than there are takers,” said the minister.

Sanction on Russian entities does not bother India: Puri

Puri said that there was no sanction on Russian oil or gas since it has been finding its way to countries. “There was no sanction on Russian oil then or now. There have never been sanctions on Russian Energy per se. Russian gas coming to Hungary through a pipeline has been exempt all along. Russian energy going to Japan through a pipeline has been exempt all along. And even today, Europe is buying 20 to 25 percent of its gas from Russia,” said the minister.

Commenting on the sanctions imposed by the US on two Russian entities, Puri said, “First of all the fleet doesn’t bother us at all. We issued tenders at the point of import. One of our oil companies will decide we want to import X amount of oil delivered at our port. And these are global tenders. Whoever can deliver it to our port can deliver.”

“Before February 2022, we imported 0.2 percent of oil from Russia. Today, it is more than that. But even during this two-year period, sometimes our imports from Iraq were higher. The main point to note is that there is more oil coming into the global market, mostly from the western hemisphere than there is need for that oil. Whenever there is a situation where more oil is available, availability is not a problem and vulnerability does not arise,” Puri said. In January, the US imposed sanctions on Russian oil producers Gazprom and Surgutneftegas, and 183 vessels that have shipped Russian oil.

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