India’s export of refined petroleum to Europe has increased. Image Credit source: File Photo

The war between Russia and Ukraine has been going on for more than a quarter of a year now. Western countries tried a lot to weaken Russia, imposed economic sanctions on it. Boycotted it in many ways, but in reality, even now the economy of European countries is running on the energy needs met by Russia. Russian oil is running the vehicles of European countries, and the friendship between India and Russia is helping them in this work.

In fact, after the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine, when economic sanctions were imposed on Russia, then it started selling crude oil at a discount rate. India and China took full advantage of this. India imports most of the crude oil it needs anyway. Now this cheap crude oil is helping Europe.

India-Russia friendship working

In December, the European Union completely stopped the import of any kind of sea-borne crude oil from Russia. Two months later, the import of refined petroleum products coming from Russia was also banned. But this rule did not apply to those countries, which are buying cheap oil from Russia and converting it into petrol and diesel.

This is where the friendship between India and Russia came in handy for Europe. India is one of the largest petroleum refiners in the world. The refinery of Reliance Industries located in Jamnagar is the largest petroleum refinery in the world. Europe is now fiercely buying Russian crude oil in the form of petrol and diesel from India.

Bloomberg quoted a Kepler report as saying that in April India became Europe’s largest refined petroleum supplier. At the same time, the demand for Russian crude oil in India has reached a record level.

Russian oil found a way to reach Europe

Kepler’s lead crude analyst Viktor Katona says that Russia’s crude oil has finally found a way to reach Europe. Despite imposing all the restrictions, it is running the economy of Europe. India has increased the import of crude oil from Russia while its export of fuel to western countries has increased.

Statistics show that India’s crude oil import from Russia has suddenly increased in January 2023. It has reached 20 lakh barrels per day in April. Whereas in February, after Europe banned refined fuel from Russia, its import from India has increased. India’s fuel exports to Europe have reached 3.6 lakh barrels per day in April.