US: India concealed Russian origin of fuel sent to US

The United States has raised concerns with India that it was used to export fuel from Russian crude oil, via offshore shipments to hide its origin, to New York in violation of US sanctions, a top Indian central banker said today, according to with Reuters.

The US Treasury informed India that an Indian ship had picked up oil from a Russian tanker on the high seas and transported it to a port in Gujarat on the west coast, where it was refined and then shipped, Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor Michael Patra said.

U.S. sanctions against Moscow over its February invasion of Ukraine ban the import into the United States of energy products of Russian origin, including crude oil, refined fuels, distillates, coal and natural gas.

“Refined production re-entered this ship and put a bow without a destination. In the middle of the sea it received the destination and so it reached its course, it went to New York,” Patra said at an event to mark the 75th anniversary of its independence of India.

The US embassy in New Delhi said it had no immediate comment.

Patra’s comments are India’s first official public reference to such US concerns. Delhi has not joined the sanctions against Russia or condemned what Moscow calls a “special military operation” in the neighbor.

Patra said he was told that Russian crude oil was processed and turned into a distillate used to make single-use plastics. He did not name the Indian ship or the refinery.

“So that’s how war works. It works in strange ways,” he said

India, the world’s No. 3 oil importer and consumer, rarely bought Russian oil in the past. But since the war began, Indian refiners have been snapping up discounted Russian oil, which is shunned by many Western countries and companies.