India spent ₹1.15 lakh crore on purchasing Russian crude oil since Ukraine war, China emerges biggest buyer: Report

India, the world's third largest oil-consuming and importing nation, has spent 112.5 billion euros or about ₹1.5 lakh crore on buying crude oil from Russia since the start of the Ukraine war. According to the European think tank Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), India's payments to Russia for fossil fuels since February 24, 2022, have revealed the figures.

"According to our estimates, since the beginning of the war, Russia earned EUR 835 billion in revenue from fossil fuel exports," it said. China was the biggest buyer of Russian fossil fuels at EUR 235 billion (made up of EUR 170 billion for oil, EUR 34.3 billion for coal and EUR 30.5 billion for gas).

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According to CREA, India bought fossil fuels worth EUR 205.84 billion from Russia from the beginning of the war until March 2, 2025. This comprised EUR 112.5 billion (USD 121.59 billion) for crude oil, which is refined into fuels like petrol and diesel at refineries, and EUR 13.25 billion for coal.

India, which is more than 85 per cent dependent on imports to meet its crude oil needs, spent USD 232.7 billion on crude imports in 2022-23 (April 2022 to March 2023) and USD 234.3 billion in 2023-24. In the first 10 months of the current fiscal, the Asian economy spent nearly USD 195.2 billion.

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India's Russian oil imports after Ukraine war

India, which has traditionally sourced its oil from the Middle East, began importing a large volume of oil from Russia soon after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. This was primarily because Russian oil was available at a significant discount to other international benchmarks due to Western sanctions and some European countries shunning purchases.

This led to a dramatic rise in India's imports of Russian oil, which grew from less than one per cent of its total crude oil imports to a staggering 40 per cent in a short period. According to CREA, some refineries in India turned Russian crude oil into fuels like petrol and diesel, which were exported to Europe and other G7 countries. The latest US sanctions led to imports falling after India shunned cargoes in sanctioned ships by banned entities.

Russia, however, continues to be India's top oil source. In February, India imported 1.48 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil from Russia, up from 1.67 million bpd in the previous month. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, it triggered a series of sanctions from the United States, the European Union, and other Western nations aimed at crippling Russia's economy. One of the main sanctions was on Russian oil exports, which significantly impacted Russia's ability to sell oil to European markets.

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As a result, Russia began offering crude oil at heavily discounted prices to find new buyers for oil. With its large energy needs and an economy sensitive to oil price fluctuations, India found this offer too attractive to ignore. The price discount on Russian oil, sometimes USD 18-20 per barrel lower than the market price of other oil, allowed India to procure oil at a much cheaper rate. The discounts have recently shrunk to less than USD 3 a barrel.