New Delhi: India has started large volumes of crude oil from Russia after the United States announced a temporary lifting of restrictions on Russian oil shipments currently stranded at sea. Reuters reported that India has started importing huge amount of crude from Moscow and Russian crude is expected to reclaim its position as India’s largest oil source.
Notably, Iraq was the largest supplier of crude oil to India in February 2026.
Why India is ramping up Russian Crude Oil imports
Indian refiners had started cutting Russian imports since December. February data showed that India’s crude imports from Moscow declined 32% year-on-year to about 1 million barrels per day, roughly half the peak seen in June 2025, the news agency reported. The drop in purchase of Russian oil decline helped India secure an interim trade deal with the United States.
In February, India imported 1.18 million barrels of crude per day, while Saudi shipments jumped to nearly 998,000 bpd, the highest imports since December 2021, Reuters sources showed. India’s crude imports from Middle East jumped to nearly 59%, the highest since August 2022.
“Russian barrels remain central to India’s crude import strategy,” said Sumit Ritolia, lead research analyst at ship tracking firm Kpler.
Russian crude shipments are around 1.8 million bpd and expected to rise 2–2.2 million bpd in March as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues to escalate. The war has disrupted the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway, through which world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) usually passes through.
Reuters quoted government officials saying that as energy supplies from Middle East taking a hit, India’s 70% of imports now coming from other countries. February data also showed that New Delhi also imported significant quantity of oil from Brazil, making the South American nation the fourth-largest supplier after the United Arab Emirates.