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Russian oil is still flowing to the US and other countries that have imposed sanctions on Moscow by way of India, according to a report from Petro-Logistics.

Indian imports of Russian crude soared this year as its refiners took advantage of discounted barrels that were rejected by the West after Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine.

On average, India has imported 583,000 barrels per day of Russian crude from April to June, compared to  36,000 BPD in 2021, Petro-Logistics said. Meanwhile, India's exports of oil products have increased.

Although it is hard to prove that the crude imported to the US contains Russian oil, the report posits that the data can give a robust picture of where it ended up.

"We have taken the ratio of Russian crude imports versus the runs of the specific refiners who imported the crude and applied those percentages to their product exports since the war. This yields an estimate of 308 kb/d of Indian product exports possibly attributable to Russian crude oil inputs," Petro-Logistics said. 

Of that amount, 113,000 barrels per day, or 37%, went to countries with some form of sanctions on Russia, including those that are not related to energy, it estimated.  

"It is very difficult in practical terms to identify if precise oil molecules from Russia are landing in sanctioning countries. However, because of the fungible nature of oil, the data can at least show where Indian refiners who have Russian crude in their feedstock mix are sending their products," the report said.