By Admin 
America has told India that it can soon resume purchasing crude oil from Venezuela. It has been introduced as an alternative to Russian oil as New Delhi is taking steps towards sharply reducing imports of Russian oil.
News agency Reuters, quoting three sources familiar with the matter, said that this initiative has come at a time when India has decided to cut the purchase of crude oil from Russia because Washington had increased tariffs on imports. Sources said that India is moving towards reducing the purchase of several lakh barrels of oil per day from Russia in the coming months.
India’s dependence on Russia reduced
Donald Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on countries buying oil from Venezuela, including India, in March 2025 and the US Army arrested Nicolas Maduro on January 3. Washington has since signaled a change in its stance, telling New Delhi that it may resume purchasing oil from Venezuela to compensate for declining supplies from Russia. The move is seen as an effort to reduce Russia’s oil income, which is funding Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
No concrete information has been given yet whether Venezuelan oil will be sold by external trading houses like Vitol or Trafigura or it will be sold directly by Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA. After the attack on Ukraine in 2022, India became a major buyer of Russian oil due to the imposition of sanctions and huge discounts by Western countries. In view of this, Donald Trump later increased the tariff on Indian products and increased it to 50 percent by adding an additional 25 percent tariff related to the purchase of Russian oil.
How much oil is India taking from Russia?
Reuters quoted sources as saying that India is preparing to soon bring Russian oil imports below 1 million barrels per day (bpd). Imports were about 12 lakh bpd in January and are expected to decline to about 10 lakh bpd in February and 8 lakh bpd in March.
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