Mumbai6 minutes ago
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Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has banned the purchase of crude oil from Venezuela. The decision has been taken after the announcement of US President Donald Trump’s 25% tariff. On 25 March, Trump announced a 25% extra tariff on the countries buying oil from Venezuela.
Reliance will now take delivery of only 1 oil cargo ordered only 1 oil ordered. After this, shopping has been banned. Reliance had a 90% stake in the oil imported from Venezuela to India. The company has bought 65 million barrels of oil from Venezuela since the beginning of 2025.
Tariff increased to punish Venezuela
According to Trump, the purpose of increasing tariffs is to punish Venezuela. Trump said Venezuela deliberately and deceptionly sends criminals and violent gang members to the US, including terrorist organizations such as Train de Aragua. We will send these criminals back.
Venezuela sold the most oil to India in January 2024
According to a Financial Times report, in December 2023, India imported about 1,91,600 barrels of crude oil from Venezuela daily. It increased to 2,54,000 barrels per day in January 2024.
This was 50% of Venezuela’s total oil exports, that is, India bought half the oil sold by Venezuela. However, it later decreased. In a year, India bought 22 million barrels of oil from Venezuela. This was 1.5% of India’s total crude oil imports.
In 2025, India bought less oil from the neighboring country than last year. According to data from Cape’s Commodity Market Analytics, India imported around 65,000 barrels per day in January 2025 and 93,000 barrels per day in February 2025.
Venezuela gives cheap oil to India
India imports more than 85% of its oil needs. Venezuela oil is relatively cheaper to India, as it is heavy crude oil, which Indian refineries can easily process. It is available at concessional rates compared to Russia and Middle East oil.
Experts believe that Trump’s decision may increase the difficulties of some Indian companies. Indian refineries recently started buying oil from Venezuela. In the year 2024, India imported 2.2 crore barrels of oil from Venezuela. However, this is only 1.5% of India’s total oil imports.
Indian companies buy large amounts of crude oil from Reliance Industries, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) Venezuela. Reliance received approval to import oil from Venezuela from the US in July 2024. Washington issued a license for this.
According to KPler’s data, Reliance had a stake of about 20 million barrels out of the oil that India bought from Venezuela in 2024. This is about 90% of India’s total Venezuela oil imports.
Venezuela gives oil to China instead of debt
China is the largest importer of Venezuela oil exports. The country is China’s debtor of more than $ 10 billion, which it pays for oil.
In 2024, China bought oil every day on an average 3,51,000 barrels per day. This was about half of the total oil exports of Venezuela. However, it was 18% lower than in 2023. China then bought oil from Venezuela on an average of 4,28,000 barrels per day. In 2023, 65% of Venezuela oil exports went to China.
American company also damaged
Apart from China itself, the move itself can cause damage to the US itself due to the move to put tariffs on the countries buying oil from Venezuela. The Biden administration allowed American oil company Chevron to buy oil from Venezuela in 2022.
This was followed by a prominent buyer of Chevron, Venezuela oil. Chevron bought an average of 2,40,000 barrels per day in 2024 every day. This was about 26% of Venezuela’s total oil production (9,14,000 barrels per day).
The Trump administration has announced the cancellation of the license received by the US oil company. The government has given the Chevron Company till 27 May 2025 to cover its operation in Venezuela.
