India prepares to embargo Russian oil over Trump's threats
The Indian government has instructed state-owned oil refineries to prepare for the possibility of a complete cutting of Russian oil after Donald Trump threatened to impose heavy tariffs on countries that cooperate with Russia. It is reported that some major Indian refineries have already stopped buying oil from Russia and are looking for alternatives.
According to the Bloomberg news organization's news, the Indian government has instructed state-owned oil refineries to prepare for the possibility of a complete cut off oil from Russia.
Sources of the agency stated that refinery managers were asked to make preliminary calculations about where and how they could get oil instead of barrels from Russia.
The Indian government, which welcomes one-third of oil imports from Russia, has yet to decide how Donald Trump will respond to the threat of imposing a 25 percent tariff on all products and additional “penalties” for cooperation with Russia starting August 1.
US Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) John Kelly confirmed on Thursday that Trump's ultimatum to Russian President Vladimir Putin will end on August 8.
Trump had previously threatened that if Russia had not ended the war in Ukraine by this date, the countries that bought energy from the Kremlin would face a 100 percent tariff.
Trump said on the Truth Social platform on Thursday that he was "not interested" in the relations between Russia and India.
Trump said, "Let the dead economies collapse together, I don't care. We have little trade with India, customs duties are very high, it is one of the highest in the world," he wrote.
Government refineries stopped purchases
Sources speaking to Reuters reported that India's state-owned refineries have already stopped buying Russian oil.
Indian Oil Corp., the country's largest oil company and operating 10 of the 20 Indian refineries with a capacity of 60 million tons per year, is also among the companies that stopped buying barrels from Russia.
Sources also stated that Hindustan Petroleum, Bharat Petroleum and Mangalore Refinery Petrochemical companies have also suspended imports.
According to Reuters' interlocutors, Indian refineries are looking for alternatives to Russian barrels in the spot market and have started buying oil from OPEC countries in the Middle East and West Africa.
Record oil imports from Russia
Since the beginning of the war, oil shipments from Russia to India have increased more than 30 times. Discounts, which were initially $14-16 per barrel, but fell to $2.5-4 in recent months, were effective in this increase. In the first half of 2025, Indian refineries bought 1.75 million barrels of oil per day from Russia, meeting more than a third of their import needs with Russian raw material.
In June, shipments reached 2 million barrels per day, accounting for more than half of the total oil exported by tankers from Russia's seaports.
According to the estimates of the analysis company CREA, since the EU implemented the oil embargo, India has paid 100 billion euros to Russia for the shipment of "black gold" and is just behind China, which imports 125 billion euros in this area.