Russia returned PAK empty-handed: 40% discount on crude oil was sought like India

Russia returned PAK empty-handed: 40% discount on crude oil was sought like India, Putin government said - will not give

Dec 2, 2022 - 11:30
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Russia returned PAK empty-handed: 40% discount on crude oil was sought like India

Russia has bluntly told Pakistan that it will not give it cheap crude oil like India. For the second time in two months, a delegation of the Government of Pakistan went to Moscow. There it appealed to the Vladimir Putin government to supply oil to Pakistan at a 40% discount. Russia flatly denied this. Russia has also said that it will only fulfill the orders it currently has.
In February, the then Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan had gone to Moscow and even then he demanded President Putin give cheap oil to Pakistan. Even then Putin rejected it.
Pakistan's newspaper 'The News' has told in a report on Thursday that Russia has rejected Pakistan's appeal for cheap oil. Pakistan's Petroleum Minister Musaddiq Malik went to Moscow with a delegation. Here, in a meeting with Russian officials, he expressed his desire to buy cheap oil on the lines of India. A 40% discount was sought for this, but the Putin government was not at all ready for this.
Russia has made it clear that its supply slots are booked and it cannot anger its big buyer like India. The Pakistani delegation reached Moscow on 29 November.
India imports 80% of its oil requirement. India increased Russian oil imports to about 277,000 barrels per day in April from 66,000 barrels per day in March. Last year there were 8 countries from which India bought more oil than Russia, but by April this figure has gone up. In terms of consumption, India is the largest country in the world after America and China.
Russia is the third largest producer of crude oil in the world after the US and Saudi Arabia. About 50 lakh barrels of crude oil are exported daily from here. More than 50% of exports are supplied to Europe.
Russia became India's fourth-largest crude oil supplier in April. India is buying cruder than this from Iraq, Saudi Arabia and UAE. The share of African oil in India's total crude imports declined from 14.5% in March to 6% in April, while the US share almost halved to just 3%.
Till March 2022, where India was buying only 3% of oil from Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. Just one month later, this share increased to 11%. India bought 3 lakh barrels per day of crude oil from Russia in March 2022 and 7 lakh barrels per day in April. In 2021, this average was only 33 thousand barrels per day. Before the Russian attack, India used to buy 1% of its total imports from Russia, which has now increased to 17%.

Muskan Kumawat Journalist & Writer