NEW DELHI: India buying more volumes of crude oil from Russia is still less than 1 per cent of the total oil imports while the volumes from the US will rise significantly, petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Monday.
Replying to supplementaries during the Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha, he said India bought 419,000 tonnes of crude oil from Russia during the first 10 months of the current fiscal year that began in April 2020, which was 0.2 per cent of the total import of 175.9 million tonnes.
In 2020-21, India imported 633,000 tonnes of 0.3 per cent while in 2019-20 the purchases were 2.93 million tonnes or 1.3 per cent of total imports, he said.
The statement comes against the backdrop of Indian firms picking up distressed Russian cargoes being offered at deep discounts. While Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has bought 3 million barrels through a trader, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) has picked up 2 million barrels.
