New Delhi: Indian refiners have paused purchases of Russian crude oil amid thinning discounts as well as Washington's threats of punishment for buying the commodity from Russia, two news reports have said.

State-owned Indian refiners Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum and Mangalore Refinery did not seek Russian crude over the last week or so, Reuters reported citing sources, who also said that the companies had turned to buying oil from other places such as the UAE and West Africa.

While US President Donald Trump had earlier in July threatened to impose a 100% tariff on countries buying Russian crude unless Moscow entered into a ceasefire with Ukraine in 50 days, on Wednesday (July 30) he said Washington would levy a 25% tariff on India, along with a “penalty” for buying energy and military equipment from Russia, on August 1.

Following Trump's announcement on Wednesday, the Union government asked state-owned refiners to draft plans for buying oil from elsewhere in the event that ‘Russian flows get stopped’, Bloomberg reported.

Having nearly completed their monthly cycle of booking Russia's Urals crude for September, Indian refiners are holding off on buying more oil from the country pending instructions from New Delhi, the news agency added.

Trump, who in April unveiled a 26% ‘reciprocal’ tariff on Indian goods but deferred it pending the conclusion of negotiations, announced on Wednesday that the US would levy a 25% tariff on India starting August 1. He cited New Delhi's “far too high” tariffs and its imposition of “the most strenuous and obnoxious non-monetary Trade Barriers of any Country” as reasons.

Washington would also charge India a “penalty” over and above the 25% tariff for its military and energy dealings with Moscow “at a time when everyone wants Russia to STOP THE KILLING IN UKRAINE”, added Trump.

Although later on Wednesday Trump did not specify what this penalty would be – saying that India and the US were still in talks – early on Thursday in Indian time he declared that he does not “care what India does with Russia”. “They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care,” he said.

Union commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said in the Lok Sabha on Thursday afternoon that the government is “examining the impact” of the tariffs and holding talks with exporters, industries and other stakeholders to solicit their views.

His counterpart in the oil and gas ministry Hardeep Puri had earlier said that New Delhi would “deal with it” and meet its energy requirements from other sources if supplies of Russian crude were disrupted by secondary sanctions.

But a transition away from Russian oil would be “costly, complex and politically fraught”, the commodity analysis firm Kpler has been quoted as saying.

The US president in July had threatened a 100% tariff on countries buying Russian oil if Moscow did not meet his deadline for striking a ceasefire with Kyiv, although Reuters on July 25 had cited three sources working with Indian refiners as saying they did not believe Trump would follow through on his threat and that ‘there are no plans to stop purchases of Russian oil’.

The US Senate is also considering the Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025, a bipartisan legislative proposal that would impose a 500% tariff on all imports from countries that continue to purchase Russian energy products, including oil, gas, uranium and petrochemicals.

Since the start of the Ukraine war, India’s imports of Russian crude have grown manifold, now accounting for nearly 40% of India’s oil imports. India is currently Russia’s second-largest oil buyer after China.

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