India to boost September Russian crude imports despite US tariffs

Indian refiners are poised to raise purchases of Russian crude in September even as Washington has slapped steep punitive tariffs on goods from New Delhi for continuing the trade, traders and shipping data showed, underscoring the growing friction between the two strategic partners. Traders told Reuters and other market sources in late August that refiners would lift imports by about 10 to 20 percent over August, equal to roughly 150,000 to 300,000 barrels per day, while shipping trackers and analysts reported mixed recent flows into India.

Weekly and vessel tracking measures showed Russian shipments to India fell sharply in late August, with one analyst noting flows to India dropped to just over 800,000 barrels per day in a recent week, the lowest since October 2022 unless later revised. Bloomberg and other trackers placed four week averages of crude on the way to India below 1.3 million barrels per day in the month to Aug. 31, down about one third from a March peak, even as overall Russian seaborne exports rebounded and China picked up much of the slack.

The contradictory signals reflect several forces at work. Traders expect producers to lower prices in September to move...