New Delhi: The United States has not asked India to stop or reduce its oil imports from Russia and nor has it sanctioned any Indian entity for buying and refining crude oil purchased from Russia since the beginning of its war with Ukraine, according senior American officials from the United States Treasury Department.

“There is no restriction, we have not asked India to reduce Russian oil buying,” said Anna Morris, Acting Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing in response to a question at a session at the Ananta Centre in the national capital.

“Not dictating that no trade can be done with Russia,” she added at the session which focused on the on phase two of the price cap on Russian oil imposed by the G7, the European Union, and Australia.

Morris also stressed that the once Russian oil is refined it is no longer Russian oil.

“I also want to specify that once Russian oil is refined, from technical perspective it is no longer Russian oil,” she said.

In the same event, the Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy, Eric Van Nostrand, hailed India’s decision to implement price cap on Russian oil said that the decision made Russia sell oil at discounted rates to other countries, including India.

“We know that the Indian economy has much at stake in the Russian oil trade, and has much at stake from the global supply disruptions that the price cap is designed to avoid. The price cap’s goals are to limit Putin’s revenue and maintain global oil supply–essentially by creating a mechanism for India and other partners to access Russian oil at discounted prices,” he said referring to Russian President Vladamir Putin.

“The price cap’s goals are to limit Putin’s revenue and maintain global oil supply–essentially by creating a mechanism for India and other partners to access Russian oil at discounted prices. The price cap’s first year was a successful one by those standards: global oil markets remained well-supplied while Russian oil traded at a significant discount to global oil,” he added.

The US Department of Treasury issued a statement regarding the price cap on Russian oil in February this year.

“The United States is part of an international coalition of countries (the Price Cap Coalition), including the G7, the European Union, and Australia, that have agreed to prohibit the import of crude oil and petroleum products of Russian Federation origin (“Russian Oil “),” the statement said.

“These countries, home to many best-in-class financial and professional services, have also agreed to restrict a broad range of services related to the maritime transport of Russian oil–unless that Russian oil is bought and sold at or below the specific price caps established by the Coalition or is authorised by a license. This policy is known as the ‘price cap’. The price cap is intended to maintain a reliable supply of crude oil and petroleum products to the global market while reducing the revenues the Russian Federation earns from oil after its own war of choice against Ukraine inflated global energy prices,” it added.