India cannot forget that Russia has also helped India with political support at the United Nations in the hours of need. Moscow remained a steady ally when Washington repeatedly angered New Delhi, including by aiding Pakistan, India’s enemy, and by imposing sanctions on India for developing nuclear weapons. India must be proud that it returned the favor by abstaining from U.N. resolutions to condemn the Russian invasion.
With Russian oil banned in the United States and Europe, India has an opportunity to buy the crude at substantial discounts, powering its energy-thirsty economy at a lower cost. Indian refiners are using the crude to make products like diesel and jet fuel and sell it at better-than-usual margins abroad. The India-bound tankers are heading into Jamnagar, in the western state of Gujarat, where Reliance Industries has the world’s largest refinery complex, and into Vadinar, also in Gujarat, the location of a refinery owned by Nayara Energy, an Indian affiliate of Rosneft, the Russian state company.
What is interesting is that while Europe may be moving away from crude purchases from Russia, it is eager to buy the same oil after it is refined in India — one of the conundrums in crimping Moscow’s energy revenues. India’s exports of diesel and other refined products to Europe, where they are in short supply, reached 219,000 barrels a day, a new high, in March, before falling back in April as demand in India surged. With European countries, as of now, still buying Moscow’s oil, it is hypocritical of them to ask India to curtail its trade with Russia. India does not have the luxury to snub discounted energy as Europe never hesitated to take advantage of the economic opportunities.
Russian oil Exports:
A report by the Helsinki, Finland-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, an independent think tank released recently said Russia earned 93 billion euros ($97.4 billion) in revenue from fossil fuel exports in the first 100 days of the country’s invasion of Ukraine, despite a fall in export volumes in May.
Europe’s hypocrisy on Russian Oil purchase stands exposed. This hypocrisy is ‘naivety’ and ‘greed’. Europe and the US have revealed their “hypocrisy” by announcing a ban on Russian oil while continuing to purchase it in large quantities. As oil and gas industry profits rise while Ukrainians suffer from Russia’s ongoing assault and consumers worldwide feel the squeeze of high energy costs, West’s hypocrisy on oil and gas purchase from Russia must be exposed. Though Russia’s war in Ukraine has given Europeans a chance to show that their oft-stated commitment to morality and shared values is more than lofty rhetoric, they are fooling.
