India's Russian oil imports fell 4.1 percent in August from a year earlier to about 1.62 million barrels per day (bpd), accounting for about a third of the nation's overall imports, tanker data has shown.
The world's third-biggest oil importer and consumer imported 4.92 million bpd of oil in total during the month, nearly 11 percent higher than in July and up 4.6 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.
US President Donald Trump has accused New Delhi of financially supporting Moscow's war against Ukraine by buying Russian oil and fired a salvo of a 50 percent tariffs on Indian goods, among the highest levied on any US trading partner.
Refiners in India, however, have raised imports of US oil, buying about 187,000 barrels per day (bpd), up 19.4 percent from the previous month, the data showed.
The data also includes some crude cargoes that arrived in August but were discharged in September. It also includes some cargoes that arrived in July and were discharged in August.
Defiant refiners
India's Reliance Industries, which operates the world's biggest refining complex, increased monthly Russian oil imports by 2.9 percent in August to about 591,000 barrels per day (bpd), data from industry and trade sources showed.
The share of Russian oil in Reliance's overall intake declined to 41.5 per cent in August from about 47 per cent in July, the data showed.
India's Nayara Energy imported only Russian oil in August, with Iraq's SOMO and Saudi Aramco halting supplies due to payment difficulties after the European Union placed the Russia-backed refiner under sanctions in July, data from trade and industry sources showed.
The private refiner imported 240,400 barrels per day of oil in August, an overall decline of 26 percent from July, tanker data showed.
Nayara, part-owned by Russian oil major Rosneft, operates a 400,000 bpd refinery at Vadinar in the Indian state of Gujarat.
