Russian oil exports to India have quadrupled this month, indicating a significant reconfiguration of global energy flows in the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as per financial report.

India, the world's third largest energy consumer, has purchased multiple cargoes of Russian oil from dealers while European purchasers avoided the country's massive commodities market in the aftermath of western sanctions against Moscow.

Russia has exported 360,000 barrels of oil per day to India so far in March, nearly four times the average for 2021. According to Kpler, a commodities monitoring and analytics organisation, the country is on track to reach 203,000 barrels per day for the entire month. Export data represents cargoes that have been loaded onto tankers and are en route to India.

According to Alex Booth, head of research at Kpler, India normally purchases CPC, a blend of mostly Kazakh and Russian crude, but the biggest increase in March was for Russia's flagship Urals oil, implying that Indian purchasers evaluated significant discounts against public opinion.

This week, White House press secretary Jen Psaki cautioned India that purchasing Russian oil would put it on the wrong side of history, despite the fact that the purchases would not violate US sanctions. Historically, Russian crude oil has accounted for less than 5% of India's total imports, which totaled 4.2 million barrels per day last year.

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