India's Refiners Are Cutting Russian Crude as New US Sanctions Threaten Punitive Tariffs

India's refiners are pulling back from Russian crude, and the reason is a new US sanctions law that threatens punitive tariffs on anyone who keeps buying it.

India is the world's third-biggest crude buyer, and for stretches of the past few years Russia has been its top supplier. OilPrice reported that refiners are now trimming Russian cargoes and hunting for replacements, with the sharpest caution around November deliveries.

The numbers already show the shift. India's Russian crude imports fell about 16.5 percent in August and were expected to slide again in September, just as the new law took effect.

That is a fast turn. In some recent months India had been sourcing more than half of its total crude imports from Russia, leaning on discounted barrels to offset high prices and disruptions to Middle East flows.

The pullback reaches beyond Russia. India's overall crude imports fell about 8.8 percent in August to roughly 4.44 million barrels a day, and refiners are tapping spot markets to cover the gap.

The cuts are not fully locked in. People familiar with the discussions said refiners could still trim November cargoes rather than cancel outright, Livemint reported. And the tariff threat is an authorized risk under the new law, not a levy already applied to specific Indian shipments.

The law behind the pressure is the same secondary-tariff sanctions package Finpresso tracked as it moved through Washington. The hunt for replacement barrels also overlaps with the European crude squeeze after Saudi loadings were halted, which has thinned the pool of easy alternatives.