Bloomberg: India Stabs Russia In The Back

• 20.02.2026, 14:07

New Delhi has chosen a different oil supplier.

India is preparing to import the largest volume of oil from Saudi Arabia in six years amid US pressure to cut purchases of Russian crude, Bloomberg reports.

A senior analyst at French firm Kpler Sumit Ritoli forecasts that supplies will rise to 1-1.1 million barrels a day, the highest since November 2019. According to Kpler, this is generally in line with the volume of supplies from Russia.

At the same time, journalists note that Russia may remain the largest supplier of oil to India in February. The publication reminds that Kpler analysts predicted that the volume of Russian oil supplies to New Delhi this month may amount to 1.2 million bpd, but it is expected that "the supply volumes should further decrease."

Kpler said imports from Russia in March are expected to fall further to between 800,000 and 1 million bpd.

"Maintenance in April and May is expected at the refinery owned by Nayara Energy Ltd, which is fully dependent on Russian oil after the European Union imposed sanctions, is expected to further reduce volumes," the journalists added.

The publication states that for Russia, losing market share in India means losing a key oil market.