The EU should crack down on India reselling Russian oil into Europe as refined fuel, including diesel, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said in an interview with the Financial Times.
India has in the past year emerged as a top buyer of Russian oil following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year.
Access to cheap Russian crude has boosted output and profits at Indian refineries, enabling them to export refined products competitively to Europe and take a bigger market share.
Photo: AFP
Borrell told the newspaper that he would raise the issue with Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in their meeting set for yesterday.
“If diesel or gasoline is entering Europe ... coming from India and being produced with Russian oil, that is certainly a circumvention of sanctions and member states have to take measures,” the EU’s chief diplomat said.
“That India buys Russian oil, it’s normal... But if they use that in order to be a center where Russian oil is being refined and by-products are being sold to us ... we have to act,” Borrell said.
Indian refiners, which rarely bought Russian oil previously due to high transport costs, imported 970,000 to 981,000 barrels per day from Russia in fiscal 2022-2023 (April to March), accounting for more than one-fifth of the country’s overall fuel imports.
Russia’s largest oil producer PJSC Rosneft Oil Co and top Indian refiner Indian Oil Corp have also signed a term deal to substantially increase and diversify oil grades delivered to India.
Ship-tracking data from Kpler showed that Reliance Industries Ltd and Nayara Energy Ltd were the key exporters of refined fuels and buyers of Russian oil.
India typically exported an average of 154,000 barrels per day of diesel and jet fuel to Europe before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, that has increased to 200,000 barrels per day after the EU banned Russian oil products imports from Feb. 5 this year, Kpler data showed.
Any mechanism to stem the flow of Russian oil would need to be implemented by the national authorities, Borrell told the Financial Times, suggesting that the EU could target buyers of Indian refined fuels which it believes are derived from Russian crude.
“If they sell, it is because someone is buying, and we have to look at who is buying,” he said.
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