India and China bought record volumes of Russian oil, while many countries reduced their oil imports from Russia

According to market intelligence firm Kepler, the total volume of crude oil stored at sea is 49 million barrels. Before the occupation of Ukraine in February, this rate was around 27 million barrels.

Asia overtook Europe for the first time last month as the largest buyer, and this gap between the two regions is expected to widen further in May. The Moscow government turned to Asian buyers because the US, UK, and many European companies stopped their oil purchases from Russia.

“The US has expressed a negative view of India’s increased oil purchases from Russia, which may pose downside risks to the current trade flow,” said Jane Xie, a senior analyst at Kpler.