“Already committed oil cargoes from Russia that can’t find buyers in Europe are being bought by India. Exports to India surged in March before any official announcement by New Delhi,” he said, FT reported. In March, White House press secretary Jen Psaki warned that India would be on the wrong side of history if it bought Russian oil, although she acknowledged the purchases would not violate US sanctions. Historically, Russian crude oil has constituted below 5 percent of India’s total imports, which were 4.2mn b/d last year.

“Indian companies weren’t sourcing much from Russia given high shipping costs,” said Vivekanand Subbaraman, research analyst at Ambit Capital. “This appears to be changing now.” Lars Barstad, chief executive of Frontline, a New York-listed tanker company, said that the discount on Russian Urals was about $25-30 a barrel, whereas freight rates would only add $3-4 per barrel, making the trade economic, FT reported. Frontline and other tanker companies have been avoiding trading Russian oil because of the complexity of complying with sanctions, but many oil majors and traders are legally bound under contracts to keep lifting Russian barrels.

Speaking to Indian lawmakers this week, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri stressed that energy prices in India have not soared as much as they have in Europe and the US, rising only 5 per cent.