Russia’s Sovcomflot plans to sell part of its fleet to repay its debts to Western banks. Anton Vaganov/Reuters
All Indian refineries are rejecting Russian crude oil shipped on Sovcomflot tankers, Bloomberg reports.
The state-owned shipping company has been the target of a series of US sanctions since December.
India’s rejection of Sovcomflot now signals a broader trade shift as New Delhi seeks to avoid being targeted by the West.
Indian refineries have stopped accepting crude oil from Russian tanker company Sovcomflot as they turn away from sanctioned companies. reports “Bloomberg”.
Since Sovcomflot’s ships have been the target of numerous US sanctions, all Indian refineries are now refusing to accept cargo from these ships. For this purpose, the ownership structure of each individual ship will be checked, the sources told the business newspaper.
At the end of February, the USA accused the state-owned company Sovcomflot of violating the Group of Seven’s price cap of 60 US dollars (55 euros) for Russian crude oil; The sanctions also affected 14 of the company’s crude oil tankers.
This came after the US Treasury Department targeted 24 ships owned by a company linked to Sovcomflot in mid-December.
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According to Bloomberg, Sovcomflot has so far handled around 15 percent of Ural crude oil shipments to India. But while the company imported around 4.7 million barrels of Russian oil in February, it was only 1.5 million in March.
India’s rejection of Sovcomflot now signals a broader trade shift as New Delhi seeks to avoid being targeted by the West. “If Russian prices are not right, we will buy from Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia,” Indian Oil and Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said in January.
That’s a reversal from last year, when India became the world‘s largest importer of Russian crude by sea. This was the case when Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022 and was locked out of traditional Western markets, forcing it to offer oil at reduced prices to new buyers.
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But since the West tightened sanctions this year, the situation for Sovcomflot has become tense, as the company itself admits. This increases freight costs for India as fewer tankers are available to transport Russian crude oil.
This means a smaller discount: in February, prices for Ural crude oil rose by four US dollars (3.70 euros) per barrel.
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