New Delhi: The ancients used to say that hay should be dried when it is sunny. Take advantage of the opportunity. If you show procrastination there, you will be left behind. This is the strategy followed by India in the field of world trade. India is exporting the oil it buys from Russia at cheap prices to Europe. This is a huge income.
So far the story of India’s oil imports has been heard. But now India is exporting oil. It is natural to ask how India, which imports 80 percent of the country’s oil, is able to export. This is where the new strategy followed by the Narendra Modi government becomes an advantage.
India has benefited from the dispute between Europe and Russia. Former Soviet Union Ukraine wants to stay with Europe. But Russia, the elder of the Soviet states, would not agree to this. This is the cause of war. It was thought that the United States would come as the savior of Ukraine, but it did not happen. But America tried to cripple Russia economically.
Russia’s main source of income is oil and gas. America has announced sanctions against it. The United States also requested Europe to cooperate. With that, Europe stopped buying Russian oil and gas. It should be remembered that until now Europe was powered by Russian oil. This is where India came in and played.
Russia sent 18 ships to bypass the embargo. Oil prices started to sell lower. Starting from China and India, all the way to Saudi Arabia took advantage of this opportunity. All bought massive amounts of cheap Russian oil. This in turn caused India’s oil storage to overflow. Although Indians did not benefit from this, the companies benefited.
India has started exporting cheap oil from Russia. Shipping to or from Europe. Due to lack of oil, Europe has increased its imports from India. In effect, the oil that should be bought directly from Russia reaches Europe via India. They will cost more. Profit for India.
National media reports that India exports diesel and jet fuel to Europe. This information was released by the Kepler and Vortexa agencies that monitor shipping. India is now capturing the big market of Europe. Before the Russia-Ukraine war, Europe was buying 154,000 barrels per day of diesel and jet fuel from India. Now it has increased to two lakh barrels.
India has been importing large quantities of oil from Russia for the past seven months. Russia has now overtaken Saudi Arabia and Iraq as the number one seller of oil to India. Buying oil from Russia is costly for India. Therefore, earlier purchase volume was very low. But in the last seven months, one crore barrels of oil have been imported.
