The challenge from Urals

India's oil pricing policies must be fine-tuned to reflect the new Russian reality

With imports of Russian crude oil rising rapidly in the last few months, the contours of India’s oil economy have altered in significant ways. However, these changes do not appear to have triggered a debate, as yet, within the government and oil companies on how various existing pricing arrangements and systems should be adjusted to reflect the new reality.

Russia has now become the single-largest supplier of crude oil to India, relegating Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to the second, third and fourth spots, respectively. The United States, which had inched up to the fourth position, is