Washington: The United States has “reached out to India” to purchase Russian oil currently sitting in floating storage in southern Asia as part of a short-term effort to ease pressure on global oil markets, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in an interview with ABC News.
The temporary measure, he said, is designed to quickly move stored crude into refineries and prevent oil prices from rising as supply routes face pressure linked to shipping constraints around the Strait of Hormuz.
“We need to get oil on the market in the short term,” Wright said. “In the long term, supplies are abundant. There’s no worries there.”
Wright said the US administration had identified large volumes of Russian crude stored on tankers near Asian markets, including oil originally meant for China but not yet taken by buyers.
“All this floating Russian oil storage that’s around Southern Asia — it’s China, just backed up,” he said.
According to Wright, Washington has reached out to India to purchase that oil and process it in its refineries to bring additional supply into the market quickly.
“We’ve reached out to our friends in India and said, buy that oil, bring it into your refineries,” he said.
The approach is aimed at reducing competition among global refiners for other available supplies.
“That pulls stored oil immediately into Indian refineries and releases the pressure on other refineries around the world to buy oil that they’re no longer competing with the Indians for in that marketplace,” Wright said.
Oil markets have faced upward pressure as shipping constraints linked to tensions in the Strait of Hormuz have raised concerns about supply disruptions. The narrow waterway between Iran and Oman is one of the world’s most critical oil transit routes.
Wright said the move involving India is part of a series of temporary steps designed to stabilise prices.
“So we have a number of measures like that that are short-term and temporary,” he said.
He stressed that the decision does not signal any broader change in US policy towards Russia.
“This is no change in policy towards Russia,” Wright said. “This is a very brief change in policy just to keep oil prices down a little bit better than we could otherwise.”
India is among the world’s largest importers of crude oil and has significantly expanded its purchases of Russian oil since Western sanctions reshaped global energy flows following the conflict in Ukraine. Indian refiners have been major buyers of discounted Russian crude and export refined petroleum products to markets around the world.
The Strait of Hormuz carries roughly one-fifth of global seaborne oil shipments, making any disruption or tension in the region closely watched by energy markets. Governments and energy producers often take short-term steps to stabilise supply when geopolitical risks threaten key shipping routes.
(IANS)
