Shortly after US President Donald Trump said India is putting a stop to Russian oil imports, government sources on Saturday said energy purchases were driven by market forces and national interests and that they had no reports of Indian oil firms halting Russian imports.
Trump claimed he had heard that India is no longer going to buy oil from Russia, which he hailed as a 'good step,' but added that he wasn't sure about the development.
“Well, I understand India is no longer going to be buying oil from Russia. That's what I heard. I don't know if that's right or not, but that's a good step. We'll see what happens,” Trump told reporters Friday.
Indian imports of oil from Russia first came into the spotlight after a recent executive order by the White House, which imposed a 25% tariff on India on July 31 ahead of the Aug. 1 tariff deadline. However, Trump also mentioned that India will pay a "penalty" for its purchases of Russian military equipment and energy.
As the penalties loom, the country's top refiner Indian Oil Corp. bought at least five million barrels of US crude, on top of 2 million barrels of supplies from Abu Dhabi, Bloomberg News reported. State-owned processors were told to come up with plans for buying non-Russian crude earlier this week.
Trump had also mounted a sharp attack on India and Russia for their close ties and said that the two countries can take their "dead economies down together."
"I don’t care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care. We have done very little business with India, their Tariffs are too high, among the highest in the World. Likewise, Russia and the USA do almost no business together. Let’s keep it that way...” he had said in a post on Truth Social.
Notably, there has been a strategic shift in the sourcing of crude oil from the US in the period between April and June 2025.
India has imported 6.23 million tonnes worth $3.71 billion from the US alone, accounting for 8.5% of the overall crude imports. New Delhi has maintained that its decision on how and where to buy the crude from will depend on its energy security needs.
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