But it remains to be seen whether New Delhi will agree to buy oil from Caracas further or refuse, fearing secondary U.S. sanctions.
India started buying oil from Venezuela again after the US sanctions against Caracas were eased in the fall of 2023. Only since the beginning of this year India has purchased black gold from the Latin American country for more than 400 million dollars. This was written by the portal oilcapital.ru with reference to Indian statistics.
Recall, Delhi stopped buying oil from Caracas at the end of 2020. At that time, Venezuela was one of the ten major oil exporters of India. Presumably, the volumes of Venezuelan oil Delhi compensated in the United States and Middle Eastern countries.
In late 2022, India shifted to Russian oil, which fell under the restrictions of the European Union and G7 countries. For this reason, it traded at heavy discounts.
As oilcapital.ru writes, oil from Venezuela also trades at discounts, but sanctions against it are not the same as the embargo on Russian oil.
But the US lifted the easing against Caracas in April. Once current contracts are finalized, Venezuela will again need Washington's permission to sell black gold. It is not clear whether India will agree to buy oil from Caracas further or will refuse, fearing secondary sanctions.
By the way, US oil exports to India fell 8.6 times earlier this year to $238 million.
In addition, shipments from the Middle East are declining. These falling volumes are compensated by Russia, which is the leader among the countries that supply oil to India.
Earlier it was written that Western sanctions do not prevent Russia from increasing oil exports.