Is India’s growing reliance on Russian supplies a long-term danger?
Helsinki, Finland-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air or CREA, got here out with a report earlier this month stating that 5 nations, together with India, have been “laundromats” for Russian oil. Why did it say so?
CREA claims that 5 nations – India, China, Turkey, the UAE and Singapore – have been ‘laundering’ Russian crude and calls them ‘laundromats’ for being conduits for oil from Russia to ultimately attain the G7 and different European nations.
Countries which have imposed sanctions on purchases of Russian crude oil at costs higher than $60 per barrel embody the G7, European Union, Australia and Japan. The sanctions embody unavailability of insurance coverage for crude in transit, and of tankers from nations that imposed these sanctions. These nations are known as the price-cap coalition nations.
In its report, CREA additionally named a couple of ports in India that contributed the biggest quantum of import of Russian crude in addition to of the export of refined petro merchandise to Europe – the Sikka and Vadinar ports.
Sikka providers Reliance Industries’ Jamnagar refinery. It not solely imports the very best quantum of seaborne Russian – or Urals crude – but additionally exports the utmost refined petroleum merchandise to Europe.
In a report abstract, CREA stated that €2.7 bln of petroleum merchandise have been exported from Sikka to price-cap coalition nations from December 2022 to February 2023.
The Vadinar port can also be in CREA’s crosshairs as Russian oil large Rosneft is a three way partnership companion in Nayara’s Vadinar refinery. CREA claims that this port is of nice worth to Rosneft as a Russian JV in a third-party nation gives a attainable strategy to circumvent the sanctions.
How did India’s MEA reply? From India’s viewpoint, is its rising reliance on Russian supplies a danger within the long-term?
Script and presentation: Okay. Bharat Kumar
Production: Shibu Narayan
Videography: Johan Sathyadas
