Bloomberg learned about $ 400 million dividends of Indian companies stuck in Russia

Indian energy companies are unable to receive $400 million worth of dividends from their assets in Russia, Bloomberg writes, citing an unnamed senior official of the Indian Oil Ministry.

The country's state-owned companies, including ONGC, have stakes in Russian oil and gas fields, but dividends from these assets are not paid due to the impasse that is associated with US and EU sanctions against the Russian financial sector, the note says .

India has also run into trouble buying Russian oil above the price ceiling set by the G7 countries, the agency said. At the same time, an unnamed official said that New Delhi would find a way to pay for the supplies.

At the end of 2022, the G7 countries, the EU, Australia and Switzerland began to apply a price ceiling for Russian oil at $60 per barrel. Russia responded to the limit with a ban on supplies to countries that apply it.

In early April, Reuters, citing unnamed traders and its own calculations, wrote that the price of Russian Urals oil had exceeded the established limit.

After the start of Russia's military operation in Ukraine and Western sanctions against Moscow, India has dramatically increased its purchases of Russian oil. According to Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, in 2022, exports to this country increased by 22 times.

Bloomberg, citing sources, wrote that India decided to comply with sanctions against Russia and adhere to the price ceiling. The Indian government has not made any official statements on this subject. Later, a Reuters source in the country's Oil Ministry said that India had not signed any agreements with Western countries to comply with the ceiling and was not obliged to buy oil only at a price below the limit. At the same time, Bloomberg interlocutors reported that Indian banks were blocking deals to buy oil from Russia for more than $60 per barrel.