Europe Still Buys Russian Oil, Through India

Though Europe banned most oil shipments from Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, the Continent is still indirectly importing Russian energy through India, data from Kpler cited by Bloomberg on November 28 shows.

Europe is on course to import an average of 305,000 barrels of diesel a day from India, the most since at least January 2017. And India relies on foreign imports for 85 percent of its crude oil—the largest share coming from Russia.

In November, Europe received a shipment from Nayara Energy, an Indian company that imports almost 60 percent of its crude oil from Russia, the Kpler data showed. Reliance Industries Ltd., Europe’s top Indian supplier of diesel, gets more than a third of its crude oil from Russia.

India-Russia axis: After Western sanctions, Russia has increasingly relied on the Asian market to export its crude oil. Indian refiners have imported oil at discount prices, which they process and sell to markets where demand for diesel is high, such as Europe.

As long as India benefits from trade with both the West and Russia, it will portray itself as taking a neutral stance. However, we expect India to ally fully with Russia soon.

Circumventing sanctions: Though Europe has portrayed itself as supportive of Ukraine and the United States by going along with sanctions against Russia, it is still buying Russian energy indirectly.

Our article “Germany’s Secret Deal With Russia—Exposed” shows how Europe’s biggest economy, Germany, is actually siding with Russia in an effort to build up both powers at the expense of the U.S.-led world order.