New York/Washington: The US has urged India to buy Russian oil already floating at sea and redirect it to Indian refineries to “tamp down” fears of supply shortages and price spikes amid the ongoing West Asia conflict, Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said.
However, the move, he said is a short-term, pragmatic effort to stabilise the market and did not signal any change in Washington’s policy towards Russia.
In an interview to CNN on Sunday, Wright said he, along with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, had spoken to Indian authorities about buying Russian crude cargoes currently waiting to be unloaded at Chinese refineries.
“India has been a great partner through this. I did call up the Indians, as did Treasury Secretary (Scott) Bessent, and said there’s a whole bunch of oil floating waiting to unload at Chinese refineries.
“Instead of having it wait six weeks to unload there, let’s just pull that oil forward, have it land in Indian refineries and tamp this fear of shortage of oil, tamp the price spikes and the concerns we see in the marketplace,” he said.
However, the US policy towards Russia has not changed at all, Wright said, adding that “India is very clear on that”.
Responding to a question on whether the Treasury Department’s 30-day waiver allowing Indian refiners to purchase Russian oil amid the US-Israel war against Iran undermined the Trump administration’s goal of isolating Moscow, he said, “It is not.”
“It’s just a pragmatic effort that has a short time span. No change in policy towards Russia,” he said.
Wright also said India has “displaced” all Russian oil imports and is raising its imports from the US, Venezuela and other nations.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz also defended the decision, saying it was a temporary and practical measure.
“I have to push back on that premise… It’s a 30-day pause to allow the millions and millions of barrels of oil that are sitting out on ships to go to Indian refineries,” Waltz said in an interview with NBC News on Sunday.
“But at the end of the day, this is going to be a temporary issue. This looks like a bit of short-term pain for the long-term gain of Iran no longer being able to hold the world’s energy supplies hostage. We have taken out that capability,” he said.
Waltz was responding to a question on why the Trump administration is “helping” Russia by giving the go-ahead to its oil sales to India.
Last week, the US said it had given “permission” to India to buy Russian oil already on ships already floating on waterways with a view to easing global supplies amid the conflict in West Asia.
“The world is very well supplied with oil. Yesterday, the Treasury (Department) agreed to let our allies in India start buying Russian oil that was already on the water,” Treasury Secretary Bessent said in an interview with Fox Business on Friday.
He said India had earlier stopped buying sanctioned Russian oil after Washington urged New Delhi to do so and was expected to substitute those supplies with American crude.
“The Indians had been very good actors. We had asked them to stop buying sanctioned Russian oil this fall. They did. They were going to substitute it with US oil. But to ease the temporary gap of oil around the world, we have given them permission to accept the Russian oil. We may unsanction other Russian oil,” Bessent had said.
He added that there are “hundreds of millions of barrels” of sanctioned crude on the water, and by “unsanctioning” them, the Treasury can effectively create additional supply for the market.
“We are going to keep a cadence of announcing measures to bring relief to the market during this conflict,” Bessent said.
According to a statement issued by the Treasury Department, the licence authorises transactions necessary for the sale, delivery or offloading of crude oil or petroleum products of Russian origin loaded on vessels on or before 12:01 am eastern standard time on March 5.
The authorisation remains valid until 12:01 am eastern daylight time on April 4, “provided the delivery or offloading occurs at a port in India” and the purchaser is an entity organised under Indian law.
The licence, however, does not authorise any transactions involving Iran or Iranian-origin goods or services that remain prohibited under existing US sanctions regulations.
