NEW DELHI: India is in talks with Russia over a deal to buy oil at discounted rates, the chairman of state-run Hindustan Petroleum Corp said on Thursday, at a time when much of the West is shunning Russian crude over the conflict in Ukraine.
India, the world’s third biggest oil importer and consumer, is struggling like much of the rest of the world with inflation at multi-year highs, and is keen to cut its import bill and protect consumers from soaring fuel prices.
The country has already bought more than twice as much crude from Russia since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 as it did in the whole of 2021, according to Reuters calculations, with sources saying buyers were getting discounted prices.
