Russia turns to India to meet petrol demand after oil infrastructure takes a hit in Ukraine strikes

This marks a change in the energy relationship between Moscow and New Delhi. For about four years now, India has been one of the top two buyers of Russian crude, the other being China. Russian oil, often sold at attractive prices after Western sanctions disrupted Moscow’s traditional European markets in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, now accounts for the lion’s share in India’s crude import basket. Repeated Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian oil refineries, combined with routine refinery maintenance, strong summer season demand, and logistical bottlenecks, have compounded the problems for Moscow. Domestic supplies of both petrol and…