Nearly 1,100 tankers operated in Russia’s crude oil and petroleum products trade since price caps were imposed by the Group of Seven (G7) countries and their allies on Moscow’s oil and petroleum products from December 5, 2022 and February 5, 2023, respectively, as per an analysis of ship tracking data till November 15 by energy cargo tracker Vortexa.
Given India’s newfound status as the largest destination of Russian crude following Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, a sizeable number of these tankers would have been involved in transporting oil from Russia to Indian refiners. India now accounts for nearly half of Russia’s crude oil exports. Similarly, Russia is now India’s largest source of crude as Moscow accounted for over 35 per cent of New Delhi’s oil imports so far in 2023.