What China and India did next

The appetite of the two East of Suez economies for Russian oil may prove crucial

One of the key questions facing the oil market as it moves into a second month of the Ukraine crisis is how many Russian barrels that Western lifters cannot or will not buy can be soaked up by alternative purchasers with fewer restrictions on the origin of their supply, rather than simply lost to the market. And, among these buyers, most interest is centred on China and India. Unsurprisingly, several conversations at the Financial Times Commodities Global Summit in late March turned on what the two Asian heavyweights would do. “The jury is out” on whether China and India can mop up a significant chunk of unloved Russian barrels, Ben Luckock, co-head of oil trading at commodity trading house