The world’s third-largest crude importer, India, has asked the United States to extend its waiver on sales of Russian oil already loaded on tankers beyond the current waiver expiry date, May 16, sources with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg on Thursday.
Since the middle of March, the U.S. Treasury has already extended twice waivers on the sale of Russian crude that’s already loaded onto tankers.
In the latest waiver extension at the end of April, the U.S. Treasury Department extended the exemption by an additional two weeks until May 16.
After the U.S. issued the first sanction waiver in March, a race began for Russian oil cargoes at sea, with several tankers even diverting from China to supply their cargoes to Indian buyers, according to shipping data from last month.
Refiners in Asia have used the sanctions waiver to stock up on Russian crude, with India actively scooping up large volumes of Russia's oil, after it was discouraged by the U.S. early this year from importing high volumes of Russian oil.
Over the past few weeks, India’s imports of crude from the Middle East plunged, but imports from Russia surged and almost doubled in March compared to February. Middle Eastern supply to India plunged by 61% to 1.18 million bpd in March, while Russian supply almost doubled from February to 2.25 million bpd in March, thanks to the U.S. waiver on purchases of Russian crude that’s already loaded on tankers.
India’s oil imports from Russia hit a record high of 2.3 million barrels per day (bpd) in the first two weeks of May, per Kpler data cited by Bloomberg.
The unprecedented flows of Russian crude into India so far this month suggest that the third-biggest crude importer in the world will fight to have continued access to Russia’s crude despite the trade frictions with the U.S.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
