NEW DELHI: According to a top official from the Indian central bank, the US has warned India that it is being exploited to evade US sanctions by shipping fuel manufactured from Russian oil to New York through high-seas transfers.
The US Treasury Department reportedly told India that an Indian ship had seized oil off a Russian ship on the high seas and transferred it to a town on Gujarat’s west coast where it had treated before being carried on, as per India’s Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Michael Patra
The importation of energy goods from Russia, including crude oil, refined fuels, distillates, coal, and gas, into the United States is prohibited by US sanctions on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine in February.
The concerns raised by the US are mentioned for the first time publicly by India in Patra’s remarks. Moscow has described an operation within one of its neighbours as just a “special military action,” so neither Delhi and Moscow have condemned it.
The Russian crude, according to the deputy governor, was refined and turned into a distillate that was used to create single-use plastic.
