New Delhi: India’s growing dependence on Russian crude could come under fresh pressure after a group of US senators proposed a sanctions bill that would impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on countries continuing to buy Russian oil.
The revised proposal significantly softens an earlier version of the bill, which had called for a blanket 500 percent tariff on countries importing Russian energy. It now caps tariffs at 100 percent and narrows the scope to the world’s five largest buyers of Russian oil or natural gas, placing India and China at the centre of the bill.According to Reuters, the bill also proposes exemptions for countries that import less than 15 percent of their natural gas from Russia and are taking steps to reduce those imports.
The top five purchasers of Russian crude are China, India, Slovakia, Hungary and Azerbaijan.For India, however, the proposal comes at a time when Russian crude accounts for the largest share of its oil imports. According to global trade data analytics firm Kpler, India imported around 2.6 million barrels per day (mbpd) of Russian crude in June, accounting for more than half of its total crude imports. The imports have been rising steadily since March, and July arrivals are also expected to remain strong.
