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The US asked India to buy Russian crude oil on ships and redirect it to Indian refineries to ease supply concerns amid the West Asia conflict, said US officials.
Photo for representation. (Image: PTI File)
The United States has urged India to purchase Russian crude oil already loaded on ships and redirect it to Indian refineries to ease concerns over supply disruptions and rising prices amid the ongoing West Asia conflict, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said. Follow US-Israel-Iran War LIVE
In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Wright said he and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had spoken to Indian authorities about acquiring Russian oil cargoes currently waiting to be unloaded at Chinese refineries.
“India has been a great partner through this. I did call up the Indians, as did Treasury Secretary (Scott) Bessent, and said there’s a whole bunch of oil floating, waiting to unload at Chinese refineries,” Wright said.
“Instead of having it wait six weeks to unload there, let’s just pull that oil forward, have it land in Indian refineries and tamp this fear of shortage of oil, tamp the price spikes and the concerns we see in the marketplace,” he added.
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Wright clarified that the move was a short-term, pragmatic step to stabilise global oil markets and did not signal any shift in Washington’s policy towards Moscow.
“It is not,” he said when asked whether the Treasury Department’s 30-day waiver allowing Indian refiners to buy Russian oil undermined the Trump administration’s goal of isolating Russia. “It’s just a pragmatic effort that has a short time span. No change in policy towards Russia.”
He added that “India is very clear on that”.
Wright also said India has “displaced” Russian oil imports more broadly and is increasing purchases from the US, Venezuela and other suppliers.
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US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz defended the decision, describing it as a temporary and practical measure.
“I have to push back on that premise… It’s a 30-day pause to allow the millions and millions of barrels of oil that are sitting out on ships to go to Indian refineries,” Waltz said in an interview with NBC News on Sunday.
“But at the end of the day, this is going to be a temporary issue. This looks like a bit of short-term pain for the long-term gain of Iran no longer being able to hold the world’s energy supplies hostage. We have taken out that capability,” he said.
Waltz was responding to a question on why the Trump administration was “helping” Russia by permitting oil sales to India.
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Last week, Treasury Secretary Bessent said Washington had given “permission” to India to purchase Russian oil already in transit to help ease global supply pressures triggered by the West Asia conflict.
“The world is very well supplied with oil. Yesterday, the Treasury (Department) agreed to let our allies in India start buying Russian oil that was already on the water,” Bessent told Fox Business on Friday.
He said India had earlier stopped buying sanctioned Russian oil at Washington’s request and was expected to substitute those volumes with US crude.
“The Indians had been very good actors. We had asked them to stop buying sanctioned Russian oil this fall. They did. They were going to substitute it with US oil. But to ease the temporary gap of oil around the world, we have given them permission to accept the Russian oil. We may unsanction other Russian oil,” Bessent said.
He added that there are “hundreds of millions of barrels” of sanctioned crude currently at sea and that by “unsanctioning” them, the Treasury could effectively boost available supply.
“We are going to keep a cadence of announcing measures to bring relief to the market during this conflict,” Bessent said.
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According to a Treasury Department statement, the licence authorises transactions necessary for the sale, delivery or offloading of Russian-origin crude oil or petroleum products loaded onto vessels on or before 12:01 am Eastern Standard Time on March 5.
The authorisation remains valid until 12:01 am Eastern Daylight Time on April 4, provided the delivery or offloading takes place at a port in India and the purchaser is an entity organised under Indian law.
The licence does not permit any transactions involving Iran or Iranian-origin goods or services that remain prohibited under existing US sanctions.
March 09, 2026, 11:31 IST
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