New Delhi. The whole world is suffering from inflation. Petrol and diesel are being sold at high prices in many countries, but the price of petrol and diesel in India is still very low. The big reason for this is Russia. Ever since the war between Russia and Ukraine started, the prices of crude oil have increased internationally and in such a situation, India started buying crude oil from its old friend Russia. India gets crude oil from Russia at a lower price. Now the news is that India has bought record crude oil from Russia in June 2024.
Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar have said several times on international forums that India will continue to buy crude oil at cheap rates to avoid the impact of high prices of petrol and diesel on Indians. Now, according to Vortexa data, India has bought the most crude oil from Russia in June. Vortexa is a real-time energy cargo tracking firm. According to Vortexa data, Russia accounted for 42 per cent of India’s total crude oil imports in June 2024. Whereas, in May, India had taken 37 per cent of its total crude oil imports from Russia. In June, India bought 16 per cent crude oil from Iraq, 8 per cent from Saudi Arabia, 8 per cent from UAE and only 7 per cent from the US.
By buying cheap crude oil from Russia, India also saved foreign exchange of about $ 8 billion in 2023. Talking about last year, India bought more than 16 lakh barrels of crude oil from Russia every day. Whereas, in 2022, India was buying only 6.51 lakh barrels of crude oil from Russia every day. America had earlier pressured India not to buy crude oil from Russia, but India had clearly said that it is sovereign and can buy crude oil from any country for its energy security. Due to buying more crude oil at a cheaper price from Russia, there has been no increase in the prices of petrol and diesel in India. Whereas, the price of both these products has increased significantly in the rest of the world.
