Indias Russian oil imports in October stay sturdy: Kpler knowledge

India’s imports of Russian crude stay “sturdy”, monitoring at roughly 1.8 million barrels per day at current, provisionally up by 250 thousand barrels per day from September, maritime knowledge and analytics supplier Kpler talked about in a blogpost on Tuesday (October 21, 2025).

The blogpost added that Russian barrels remained the “largest single supply of crude for India” accounting for about 34% of the general share and entailed “compelling reductions” which might be “too vital for refiners to disregard”.  

Thus, it sought to deduce that U.S. President Donald Trump’s remarks initially made on October 15 suggesting India would scale back Russian crude imports, are “possible stress techniques linked to commerce negotiations relatively than a mirrored image of an imminent coverage change”. India’s Russian oil purchases have been a single main level of competition of their negotiations for a beneficial commerce deal from the U.S. In reality, on as many as three events President Trump has reiterated the notion, additionally emphasising as soon as that “it’s a [gradual] course of”. However, New Delhi has been agency in sustaining their dedication to safeguard pursuits of Indian shoppers in a “risky vitality state of affairs”.  

Cutting Russian imports can be “troublesome, expensive and dangerous”  

The blogpost held that India may think about transferring again to their pre-2022 basket permitting extra barrels to movement from West Asia, Latin America and the U.S. It added that Indian refiners additionally possess the flexibility to deal with various crude grades which suggests “minimal” technical constraint in doing so. However, with Moscow accounting for 30-35% of the Indian basket of late, the weblog held, “Substitution would require speedy scaling from a number of suppliers, at greater prices (freight, weaker reductions). If margins compress or retail costs rise, the outcome might be inflation, political backlash and weaker refiner profitability.” It added that greater price of crude may additionally contribute to worsening home working budgets and put stress of refiner credit score traces. Thus, slicing Russian imports made it “troublesome, expensive and dangerous”, it held.  

Kpler additionally noticed although there was a stronger push for diversification, Russian contracts are usually signed 6-10 weeks earlier than arrival. “Rewiring all that takes time. In follow, Indian refiners are steadily broadening their baskets, to not change Russia within the quick time period, however to boost vitality safety and adaptability,” it talked about.  

Reliance Industries recalibrates oil purchases 

In a separate improvement on Wednesday (October 22), privately-owned refiner Reliance Industries knowledgeable that it has determined to recalibrate their oil imports from Moscow. This comes after new sanctions being imposed by U.S. and Europe on Russian oil companies.