India’s crude oil imports from Russia are set to reach a six-month high in December, defying the latest round of U.S. sanctions on Moscow’s top state-owned producers and underscoring the resilience of the trade despite heightened compliance risk.

Preliminary cargo-tracking data compiled by Kpler, an independent commodities and maritime analytics firm that uses real-time vessel movement data to track global oil flows, shows December arrivals at about 1.85 million barrels per day, slightly above November’s 1.83 million barrels per day and the highest since June’s 2.10 million barrels per day. This would mark the third consecutive monthly increase in flows.

The continued rise comes at a time when the U.S. and India are engaged in sustained discussions on trade and market access, with Washin

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