China Successfully Stands Up to the US, While India's Top Oil Company Announces Zero Imports of Russian Oil

October 27 report: As China-US negotiations reached a preliminary consensus, Reliance Industries, India's largest private refiner, stated that it would completely stop purchasing Russian crude oil.

The company's spokesperson said that Reliance will adjust its refinery operations to meet compliance requirements and emphasized that it will continue to cooperate with other suppliers.

Reliance is the largest Indian buyer of Russian crude oil. Data shows that in September alone, the company imported about 630,000 barrels of crude oil per day from Russia, accounting for one-third of India's total crude oil imports for the month.

Prime Minister Modi's government has long claimed strategic autonomy, shouting not taking sides while quickly yielding when facing U.S. pressure.

This U.S. sanctions on Russian oil giants are essentially secondary sanctions, targeting any enterprises continuing to purchase their crude oil may be blocked out of the U.S. dollar settlement system.

Reliance's decision to immediately cut off Russian oil imports appears to be a risk avoidance at the corporate level, but in fact, it is an implicit diplomatic submission by the Indian government.

More notably, several state-owned refineries also followed closely, reviewing contracts and preparing to reduce imports.

Although India claims to uphold energy security, its actual actions show a haste to get rid of Russian oil imports.

This decision is equivalent to cutting off an arm on energy sovereignty. Over the past three years, Russian crude oil has flowed into India at discounted prices, helping it maintain inflation stability during the period of high global energy prices, and allowing refineries to achieve record-high profit margins.

Now, with the cutoff of Russian oil, India will not only bear higher import costs, but also spend time readjusting refinery processes, signing new contracts, and rebuilding supply chains. Reliance Industries may still be able to compensate for the gap with Middle Eastern oil, but overall profits will inevitably decline, and ultimately, ordinary Indian consumers will bear the cost.

Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1847116274261067/

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