Indian Refiners all set to go for Venezuelan oil import amid Russian crude curtailment

New Delhi, Feb 19, 2026: Amid the slowing down of merchandise imports from Russia in January fell over 40% to $ 4.81 billion in January 2025, the recent data has concluded where Indian refiners are either seeking domestic help or other countries drastic shift.

The state-owned Bharat Petroleum Corporation has reportedly initiated its first ever purchase of Venezuelan oil, along with the private refiner and subsidiary of HPCL HMEL (HPCL Mittal Energy Ltd) which has bought crude oil from the South America’s country for the first time, as per the officials.

With this, the two refiners have bought a million barrels of crude where the heavy oil that is purchased through two separate deals and is planned to be lifted on a very huge crude carrier, likely saving the shipping cost. This will boost India’s imports of Venezuelan crude to at least 6 million barrels by April, according to sources.

Why and How it is Important:

This step has been taken by Indian refiners to diversify their purchasing approach along with the reduction in Russian oil imports which is important to reduce alleged restrictions from US trade deals, although many refiners have been reportedly declined their Russian imports in order to step aside from this stiff battle. Earlier also, Reliance Industries, Indian Oil Corporation, and HPCL have bought Venezuelan crude below the Dubai crude oil benchmark, much below $6.5 to $7 per barrel.

However, the two traders Vitol and Trafigura have been marketing and selling the Venezuelan oil since January under the licence granted by the U.S which was a part of Caracas and Washington.  The oil import from South American country has been expected to spur in April 2026 with refiner Valero refiner Energy all set to get around 6.5 million barrels of Venezuelan crude in March.