NEW DELHI, October 27. /TASS/. India's imports of oil from the United States reached 540,000 barrels per day in October, climbing to their highest since 2022, The Economic Times reported citing the analytics company Kpler.

This move is seen as part of New Delhi's effort to diversify supplies away from Russia and ease trade tensions with the Trump administration, the publication says.

According to Kpler analysts, India is trying to find a balance between ensuring national energy security, increasing its strategic oil reserves, and addressing geopolitical concerns caused by the White House's demand to reduce purchases of Russian energy products.

In November, daily crude oil shipments from the US could reach up to 450,000 barrels, a sharp increase from the average of 300,000 barrels this year. Further export growth will be limited by the long time of delivery of US crude oil to India, the high cost of freighting vessels, and the technological challenges of local refineries processing it.

US crude oil shipments to India averaged 220,000 barrels per day in August and September, compared to a daily level of 364,000 barrels in July. This year, the share of US crude oil imports in India remained below 6%, compared to 10% in 2024. In the first nine months of 2025, US LNG purchases totaled 2 million tons, compared to 5 million tons in the same period last year.

As The Times of India's government sources stated earlier, "India is guided solely by economic objectives when purchasing oil and LNG on the global market, not by geopolitics. The government does not interfere in the decisions of state-owned oil companies." India's oil purchases will not be limited to third countries, they can only be stopped as a result of UN sanctions, as in the case of Iran.

Russia remains India's main oil supplier, the publication notes. In September, Russia's share of total oil imports reached 33.3%. Last month, India imported 1.6 million barrels of oil per day from Russia. This is 6% less than in August, when the country purchased 1.7 million barrels per day. New Delhi's total imports in September amounted to approximately 4.8 million barrels of oil.

India is the world's third-largest oil consumer, with a high level of dependence on imported oil, which meets over 85% of the country's oil needs. Indian refineries buy oil from more than 30 countries.