US urged India to buy Russian oil already at sea to ease supply fears: Energy Secy

The United States urged India to buy Russian oil cargoes waiting near Chinese refineries and redirect them to Indian refineries to ease supply concerns and curb price spikes during the West Asia conflict, while maintaining that Washington’s policy toward Russia remains unchanged

New York: 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 with 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”.