US opens a window for Russian oil import. India says door was never closed
A 30-day waiver clears cargoes at sea even as New Delhi insists it has never stopped buying Russian oil since 2022
Last Updated: Mar 06, 2026, 19:19 IST4 min
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The US on Friday opened a 30-day window for Indian refiners to purchase Russian oil currently stranded at sea, even as India maintained it never stopped buying oil from Russia.
The US move permits the sale and delivery of Russian crude and petroleum products loaded on vessels on or before March 5.
The authorisation expires April 4, a window US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent characterised as a “stop-gap measure” designed to prevent supply shocks without providing a long-term windfall for Russia.
“To enable oil to keep flowing into the global market, the Treasury Department is issuing a temporary 30-day waiver to allow Indian refiners to purchase Russian oil. This deliberately short-term measure will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government as it only authorizes transactions involving oil already stranded at sea,” Bessent posted on X.
The waiver follows a year of intense friction between Washington and New Delhi. Last year, the US hit India with 25 percent penalty tariffs for continued purchase of Russian oil. Those tariffs were only withdrawn last month after the US signalled New Delhi would pivot toward Western energy sources, a promise that effectively brought the two nations to the table for a broader trade deal.
However, as the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz threatens to choke nearly half of India’s crude supply, Washington has been forced to offer what Bessent called a measure to “alleviate pressure caused by Iran’s attempt to take global energy hostage”. He added that Washington “fully anticipates” New Delhi will eventually replace these volumes with American barrels, of which India already buys $15 billion annually.
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India Pushback
Indian officials, however, pushed back on the notion that Russian oil had disappeared from the country’s import basket.
“India continues to buy crude oil from Russia. India has never stopped buying Russian oil since 2022,” a government source said, adding that Russia remained India’s largest supplier even in February.
“As of now, no sanctioned Russian oil has been imported. India takes its own decision where to source crude oil from. India is answerable to its consumers,” the source added.
Before the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Russia accounted for just 0.2 percent of India’s total oil imports. “Today, we have more energy sourced from different parts of the world other than the Strait of Hormuz,” the government source said, noting that 55 percent of India’s oil imports in February came from non-Hormuz regions.
There are other alternatives, including the Habshan-Fujairah oil pipeline and Yanbu pipeline, where oil comes from, the source said.
Rising Russian Flows
Roughly 130 million barrels of Russian crude currently remain on the water globally, with about 27 million barrels idling in the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean alone, estimates analytics firm Kpler.
India had continued importing Russian crude even before the waiver, with baseline flows estimated at around 1 million barrels per day in recent months, shows Kpler data.
The waiver effectively acts as a catalyst for refiners to lift volumes above this recent “base load”, argues Sumit Ritolia, lead research analyst for refining and modeling at Kpler.
“With the waiver now in place, refiners could quickly resume purchases, potentially pushing Russian inflows to around 1.8 to 2 million barrels per day in the near term,” Ritolia said. However, he warned that the deep discounts typically associated with Russian crude are vanishing. “As Indian refiners re-enter the market for these grades, the deep discounts could narrow significantly, and prompt cargoes may even trade at premiums if competition for available barrels intensifies.”
Despite the relief, the temporary nature of the US waiver has drawn sharp criticism from those who view it as an infringement on Indian sovereignty.
Ajay Srivastava, founder of the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), argued that a nation importing 90 percent of its oil cannot manage its security through “short-term permissions”.
“India and Russia are sovereign states, and their bilateral energy trade does not fall under US jurisdiction,” Srivastava said. “Efforts by the US to authorise or restrict such commerce effectively extend unilateral control over trade between independent countries, raising serious questions about the principles of sovereign equality.”
He warned that with domestic stocks covering barely 30 days of consumption, relying on narrow waivers for “stranded” oil offers little real relief to India’s long-term energy security.
Securing Supply
New Delhi is taking aggressive internal measures to ensure it has adequate supply. The government has ordered all public and private refiners to maximise LPG production and cease diverting propane and butane for petrochemical products. “India is at a very comfortable position despite the force majeure,” the government source said, referring to recent supply disruptions from QatarEnergy. “We are scouting for more LNG cargoes, re-prioritising gas allocations so that no Indian consumer is directly impacted.”
The source said India was already buying $15 billion worth of energy products from the US. “If the US has more energy to offer, we will buy.”
“A few days ago, we were more vulnerable on LPG supplies,” the government source said. “Today, we are at a comfortable position in LPG, crude oil and refined products supplies.”
First Published: Mar 06, 2026, 19:19
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