United States President Donald Trump’s statement that India will now buy Venezuelan oil as opposed to buying it from Iran has stoked a controversy with the Iranian media fact-checking Trump’s remarks as factually incorrect.
On Saturday, Trump told reporters on board Air Force One that India was buying Venezuelan oil. “India is coming in, and they’re going to be buying Venezuelan oil as opposed to buying it from Iran. So, we’ve already made that deal, the concept of the deal,” Trump said. The US has moved towards controlling Venezuela’s energy supply and has urged oil companies to invest in the country’s infrastructure.
The statement made amid escalating tensions between the US and Iran, in the wake of Iranian protests, triggered Iran’s state-backed media. A report that appeared in Tasnim News Agency has called out Trump for his statement.
The report added: “Trump's statement was welcomed by hostile media outlets. However, a review of India's oil import statistics reveals that India has not been a major customer of Iranian oil in recent years. India stopped buying Iranian oil in 2019. The country, which was a long-standing and major customer of Iranian oil, reduced its official imports from Iran to zero after Trump imposed unilateral sanctions during his first term as president, and after receiving a temporary exemption from sanctions.”
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In recent years, India has imported about 4.6 to 5.36 million barrels of crude oil per day, and these imports are sourced from several different countries. The largest oil exporter to India is Russia, which sells between 1.5 and 1.8 million barrels of oil to India per day. India bought about $25 billion worth of oil from Russia in 2023 and about $43 billion worth in 2024.
“The amount of oil India has purchased from Iran has been very small in recent years, almost zero. In fact, the amount of oil India has purchased from countries such as Nigeria, Angola, and Venezuela has been greater than the amount it has purchased from Iran,” Tasnim said.
It then lashes out at Trump for “stealing Venezuelan oil”, stating he has taken over daily production of about 1 to 1.4 million barrels of oil . It also accused Trump of starting negotiations with China and India to have these countries buy Venezuelan oil from the United States.
“If Trump's claim that India agreed to buy Venezuelan oil from the US to encourage a reduction in tariffs is true, this move should not be seen as replacing part of Russian oil imports with Venezuelan oil and not Iranian oil.