This item is crude oil. According to CNN, Russia’s crude oil sales to India alone reached a record $37 billion in 2023. Subsequently, the populous country refined and exported a portion to the United States as petroleum products, valued at over $1 billion.
According to analysis by the Clean Energy and Air Research Center (CREA), exclusively shared with CNN, data shows that India (a strategic partner of the US) was involved in purchasing crude oil from Russia. This item used to be sold to Europe but has now decreased due to the Western-imposed sanctions following the conflict in Ukraine.
In fact, the sale of crude oil from Russia to India is entirely legal and not subject to sanctions. According to CNN, part of this complex trade activity offshore Gythio port in Greece occurred in early February 2024. Specifically, two vessels, one large and one smaller, moved alongside each other to transfer crude oil between the ships.
However, according to analysts, dozens of similar transfers occur weekly in the Laconian Gulf of Greece. This is a convenient position on the route to the Suez Canal and Asian markets.
In reality, many oil transactions between Russia and India occur directly and openly. Windward, a maritime artificial intelligence company, analyzed global shipping activity for CNN and discovered 588 direct shipments of Russian crude oil to India in 2023.
Russia uses a secret fleet of ships to transport oil to many countries worldwide. Photo: CNN
However, trade between Russia and India is more complex, similar to what CNN witnessed off the coast of Greece. Furthermore, the vessel monitoring company Pole Star Global conducted a similar route check and found more than 200 trips in 2023 by Russian vessels transferring goods in the Laconian Gulf to another ship for delivery to India.
The fleet of crude oil transport vessels has enabled Russia to create parallel transport routes to surpass changing tactics and the focus of Western sanctions. This fleet has hundreds of oil tankers with unclear ownership and uses complex routes. Windward estimates that this fleet increased to 1,800 vessels by 2023.
Russia’s oil revenue will continue to rise
Russia earns billions of dollars from crude oil exports to India. Photo: CNN
The real impact of India’s purchase of Russian crude oil is to weaken the pressure that Russia faces from oil sanctions. In fact, in 2023, Russia’s revenue from oil exports skyrocketed to a record $320 billion and is expected to increase further.
On the other hand, for India, buying from Russia is a means to keep global prices lower because the country does not compete with Western countries for oil in the Middle East region.
Hardeep Singh Puri, India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, told CNBC last week, “If we were to start buying more oil from the Middle East, oil prices would not be at $75 or $76; instead, it would rise to $150.”
According to CREA’s analysis, the United States was the largest buyer of products refined from Russia’s crude oil by India in 2023, with a value of $1.3 billion from December 2022 to the end of 2023. This estimate is based on publicly available energy and shipping data.
After analyzing public data from the Russian Finance Ministry, Howard Shatz, an economist at the RAND Corporation (US), concluded that both Russia’s income and spending were at all-time highs in 2023.
Article reference source: CNN, CNBC
