The Indian Express
India’s Russian oil imports declined to an 11-month low in December as the country was unable to take delivery of any cargo of the Sokol grade crude, even as the import volumes of the Urals crude—the mainstay of India’s oil imports from Russia—remained robust in the last month of 2023, shows an analysis of latest shipping data provided by commodity market analytics firm Kpler.
India’s import of the Sokol crude, which is produced in Russia’s Far East region, ran into problems related to Western sanctions and payments over the past month or so, The Indian Express has learnt. As a result, six oil tankers carrying Sokol crude for government-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) were idling close to the Indian waters for weeks, unable to discharge the oil at their destination ports—Vadinar and Paradip, as per ship tracking data. Two of the six tankers are now showing Chinese ports as their destinations, indicating that these cargoes could finally be consumed by Chinese refiners instead.
