India Hid Russian Origin Of Fuel Shipped To US: Report

US Treasury Department told India that a ship belonging to India picked up fuel from a Russian tanker, brought it to Gujarat's west coast port through high-seas transfers to hide its origin.

New Delhi: Indian refineries have been buying discounted Russian oil barrels which have been boycotted by western companies and refineries ever since the war between Russia and Ukraine started. The cheap oil supply from Russia has helped India and its other buyers get economic relief amid elevated inflation. Notably, India is the number three oil consumer and importer in the world and Russia became India's third-largest coal supplier in July. Moscow is facing sanctions from the United States following its Ukraine invasion in February this year. The UN sanctions prohibit the import of Russian-origin energy products including coal, distillates, crude oil, refined fuels, and gas. 

Meanwhile, a deputy governor of India's central bank, quoted as saying by Reuters, said that the United States has raised concern that an Indian company, in violation of UN sanctions, hid the origin of Russian oil, processed it and shipped some products to New York. 

As per the report in Reuters, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor Michael Patra said US Treasury Department told India that a ship belonging to India picked up fuel from a Russian tanker made of Russian crude brought it to Gujarat's west coast port through high-seas transfers to hide its origin, where it was refined and shipped on.

"The refined output was put back on that ship and it set sail without a destination. In the mid-seas, it received the destination so it reached at its course, went to New York," Patra said at an event to celebrate 75 years of India's independence. The United States (US) embassy in New Delhi is yet to comment on the matter. 

Several Western nations, including the United States, have been criticising India on its trade ties with Moscow notwithstanding the crisis in Ukraine.

"Our decisions on what we do regarding purchase of oil or other things related to that will be guided by our energy security requirements, our perspective will be guided by energy security," India's foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi told a news conference, reuters reported.