Donald Trump threatens to impose taxes on Russian oil consumers, so India searches for alternatives: Report

According to reports, Indian oil refiners are considering alternatives to Russia as a source of crude after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose additional sanctions on Russian oil purchasers. The state-owned Bharat Petroleum Corp. and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. are therefore searching for additional supplies from the North Sea, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean.

The trade cycle for barrels supplied the following month often ends in early March, therefore this is for the month of May. This comes after Trump threatened to impose secondary taxes on Russian oil purchasers on Sunday if President Vladimir Putin rejected a ceasefire with Ukraine.

According to the report, this caused benchmark futures to soar, with West Texas Intermediate up 3.1% on Monday—its largest rise in nearly 11 weeks. In order to lessen their dependency on the OPEC member, Indian refiners are searching the spot market for non-Russian supply.