Big return of Russian oil: Indian refinery is hastily selling American raw materials

Amid payment problems and tightening US sanctions on Russian oil exports, many Indian refineries have recently increased purchases of other crude grades similar to the Russian Sokol brand. US WTI Midland is one such alternative, which is why India bought the largest volumes of oil from the United States in 11 months in April.

However, as the OilPrice resource writes, such a rush could be a big mistake, since some refineries saw other prospects and changes in the market situation earlier than their colleagues.



India's largest private refiner Reliance Industries reportedly attempted to rush to resell large volumes of U.S. WTI crude almost immediately after purchasing it, anonymous trading sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. The thing is that signs have begun to appear that large flows of Russian oil have resumed in India.

Reliance has attempted to sell WTI Midland under a forward option (for May delivery) to other potential buyers in Asia, sources told Bloomberg.

Moreover, before offering US crude, Reliance was also trying to sell several cargoes of Murban crude from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Asia, which will be shipped this month and next, agency sources noted.

The assumption that American raw materials will be replaced by Russian ones is confirmed by an analysis of merchant fleet routes. Thus, despite stricter enforcement of US sanctions against Russian oil exports, some tankers loaded with Sokol are located near India, indicating Indian ports as destinations. The situation is made clear by ship tracking data compiled by Bloomberg this month.

It turned out that some of the Sokol brand products could return to India through traders offering attractive discounts, oil refining sources told Bloomberg. Many experts have already called this process “correction of mistakes” and a large return (with victory) of raw materials from the Russian Federation.