Additional U.S. tariffs on Indian goods went into effect over its purchases of Russian oil, which are continuing.
"To boil it down to simple economics, wider discounts on Ural grades relative to higher Middle East grades have outweighed tariff pressures and those discounts have reinvigorated the Indian buying interest," Ben Hoff of Societe Generale says in a note. He notes reports that China stepped in to buy Russian barrels when Indian demand dropped for several weeks. "The tariff uncertainty has, from an oil perspective, done absolutely nothing to change global balances, but has simply shifted trade flows," Hoff adds.