The Cradle reported on Oct. 8, based, in turn, on an Oct. 7 report in Reuters, that oil import firms in India have begun using yuan to directly pay for shipments of Russian crude oil. The article cited, for example, recent payments in Chinese currency by Indian Oil Corporation, for “two or three cargoes of Russian oil…. Now traders, which until now had to convert payments in dirhams (U.A.E.) or dollars into yuan—since those can be directly exchanged into rubles needed to pay the producers—are seeking to remove one costly step from the process,” according to “informed sources” speaking to Reuters.
The Cradle added that “payments in yuan will expand the availability of Russian oil for Indian state refiners, given some [Russian] traders would not accept other currencies.”
