India increases imports of Russian oil due to escalation in the Middle East

Several tankers carrying Russian oil have changed their route and headed for India amid escalation in the Middle East.

This is reported by Bloomberg.

According to ship tracking data, at least two tankers carrying Russian oil, originally headed to East Asian countries, have changed their destination and headed to Indian ports.

As the agency notes, such a change in routes may indicate New Delhi’s willingness to again more actively purchase Russian crude oil amid the aggravation of the situation in the region.

Analysts Kpler and Vortexa expect two tankers with approximately 1.4 million barrels of Urals oil to be unloaded at Indian ports this week.

In particular, the Suezmax tanker Odune arrived at the port of Paradip on India’s east coast on Wednesday with a cargo of about 730,000 barrels of oil. Another Aframax vessel Matari is due to arrive at the port of Vadinar in the west of the country.

Another tanker, the Indri, which had previously signaled a course for Singapore, abruptly changed course in the Arabian Sea and headed for India.

At the same time, all three vessels – Odune, Matari, and Indri – were subject to sanctions by the United Kingdom and the European Union last year.

The tanker management companies from Azerbaijan and their owners from Hong Kong have not yet commented on the change in routes.

It was previously reported that Iran’s threats to ships in the Strait of Hormuz have caused a sharp increase in world oil prices and may reverse the trend of declining Russian oil revenues.

As a reminder, on March 3, the sanctioned tanker Arctic Metagaz, flying the Russian flag and transporting liquefied natural gas, caught fire in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea.