Industry Odisha Bureau, Aug 10: Fears of procuring much more expensive crude oil looms large over India in near future once the US Bill ‘Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2006’ gets passed also by the House of Representatives next month (September), while it has already been passed by the US Senate.
Media reports, quoting the analysts, have stated that, “The Act after being accorded seal of approval by the US Congress would enable incumbent US President Donald Trump to impose tariffs up to 100% on the countries like India and China being listed among the top five importers of Russian oil and gas. While India is claimed to be the world’s third-largest oil importer and fourth-largest oil refiner, Russian crude oil accounts for about 48% of imports made by India’s state-run oil refineries.”
Media reports, citing the contentions made by the analysts, have also stated that, “In the aftermath of the contentious US Bill passage plus Trump-regime’s 100% tariffs imposed, and if India is bound down to import crude oil from the West Asian regions bypassing Iran and the trouble-torn Strait of Hormuz, the cost via the Suez Canal shipment route would be much higher due to the longer route along with the costlier insurance premiums.”
Reportedly, “India imports 90% of its crude oil requirement, while an increase in every $1 a barrel of crude oil increases about Rs 18,000 crore to India’s annual import bill. Meanwhile, India’s crude oil import bill has already gone up 60% year-on-year (YoY) to nearly $49.8 billion in the April-June quarter of this year, while the import volumes have fallen to around 60 million tonnes from 62.6 million tonnes a year ago (2025).”
