Global
Rupee Rouble Roulette: India buys oil from Russia and pays back in dirhams
Russia is banking, no pun intended, on its friends – UAE and India – to brace itself from the tightening noose of sanctions from Western countries in the trail of its continued war on Ukraine.
While India has continued to do oil imports and trade with Russia, the latter has started to route payments through the UAE dirham, according to a Reuters report.
Russia is seeking payment in dirhams for oil exports to some Indian customers, three sources said and a document showed, as Moscow moves away from the US dollar to insulate itself from sanctions by America and its allies since the invasion of Ukraine began in late February.
An invoice seen by Reuters shows the bill for supplying oil to one refiner is calculated in dollars while payment is requested in dirhams.
Russian oil major Rosneft is pushing crude through trading firms including Everest Energy and Coral Energy into India, now its second biggest oil buyer after China.
Western sanctions have prompted many oil importers to shun Moscow, pushing spot prices for Russian crude to record discounts against other grades.
That provided Indian refiners, which rarely bought Russian oil due to high freight costs, an opportunity to snap up exports at hefty discounts to Brent and Middle East staples. Moscow replaced Saudi Arabia as the second biggest oil supplier to India after Iraq for the second month in a row in June.
Payments in rupees from India is being funneled to Russia through the UAE exchange route.
The few Indian businesses and banks are taking a leaf from an old trade playbook they had relied upon during the US embargo on Iran. At least two Indian refiners have already settled some payments in dirhams, the sources said, adding more would make such payments in coming days.
India, also maintaining a neutral position, recognises insurance cover by Russian companies and has offered classification to ships managed by a Dubai-based subsidiary of Moscow’s top shipping group to enable trade.
India’s central bank last week introduced a new mechanism for international trade settlements in rupees, which many experts see as a way to promote trade with countries that are under Western sanctions, such as Russia and Iran. The invoice showed payments to be made to Gazprombank via Mashreq Bank, its correspondent bank in Dubai.
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The UAE has maintained a neutral position with Russia and is not part of the sanctions on Moscow. Many Russians have also even lapped up property in Dubai and are driving a momentum in the real estate market in the UAE.
Russia wants to increase its use of non-Western currencies for trade with countries such as India, its foreign minister Sergi Lavrov said in April.
The country’s finance minister last month also said Moscow may start buying currencies of “friendly” countries, using such holdings to influence the exchange rate of the dollar and euro as a means of countering sharp gains in the rouble.
The Moscow currency exchange is preparing to launch trading in the Uzbek sum and the dirham.
Russia’s state oil producer is also explored the idea of creating a trading venture in Dubai just like others who have a direct connection and are trying to work around the sanctions.
In June, Bloomberg cited a S&P Global Commodity Insight report that Litasco SA, a trading unit of Russia’s Lukoil PJSC, is looking at Dubai for a new head office. Litasco declined to comment at the time but said it would ensure it complied with all applicable sanctions.
Dubai announced on Sunday that work had begun on a new terminal at Al Maktoum International Airport, which Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President, Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai said will become “the world’s largest” at a cost of almost $35 billion.
“We approved the designs for the new passenger terminal at Al Maktoum International Airport, and (are) commencing construction of the building at a cost of AED 128 billion ($34.85 billion),” Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, said on X.
Once fully operational, the airport will “handle a passenger capacity of 260 million annually”, the government said in a statement.
Sheikh Mohammed said it will have “the world’s largest capacity” and be “five times the size of the current Dubai International Airport”, which is one of the world’s busiest air hubs.
According to Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, president of the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and CEO of flag carrier Emirates, “the first phase of the project will be ready within a period of 10 years, with a capacity to accommodate 150 million passengers annually.”
Built on the city’s outskirts, Al Maktoum airport has received a relatively small share of the Gulf financial hub’s air traffic since 2010.
Authorities want it to replace Dubai International Airport, which has a capacity of up to 120 million passengers annually and whose city-centre location prevents expansion.
King Charles III is to make an opening speech at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, Buckingham Palace announced on Wednesday. The monarch will address world leaders at the opening ceremony on December 1. After his speech, he will “take the opportunity to have meetings with regional leaders”, a Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said. The king, who is widely known for his environmental activism, was invited to Cop28 by President Sheikh Mohamed.
King Charles III is famous for his love of the environment, and he has been an advocate for organic farming and preventing climate change. He will attend the COP28 Business and Philanthropy Climate Forum, which runs alongside the event. He will also speak at COP28 on 1 December and is expected to share his vision for the future. He is no stranger to sharing these views with world leaders, as he previously spoke at Glasgow’s COP26 in 2021 and COP21 in Paris in 2025.
In 1989, the then Prince Charles and Princess Diana undertook their first trip to the UAE. The nine-day tour included visits to Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. The pair met Sheikh Zayed, the Founding Father of the UAE, at his majlis in Al Ain.
UAE astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi and his fellow Crew-6 members have successfully returned to Earth, concluding their historic space mission. The crew members safely disembarked from the Dragon Endeavour spacecraft with assistance from SpaceX recovery personnel. Al Neyadi, the last to exit the spacecraft, completed the process exactly one hour after the splashdown.
Welcome home, #Crew6!
After six months of science and discovery aboard the @Space_Station, our Crew-6 team splashed down at 12:17am ET (0417 UTC) and will be picked up shortly by recovery teams. pic.twitter.com/zf635dfUKF
— NASA (@NASA) September 4, 2023
Crew-6’s remarkable space mission spanned an impressive 186 days, setting a new record as the longest mission in Arab history. The Dragon capsule made a secure touchdown off the Florida coast at 8:17 am on a Monday, with Al Neyadi emerging from the Dragon spacecraft just an hour later. During this mission, Al Neyadi achieved significant milestones, elevating the UAE’s status in the global space arena. He completed the longest-ever space mission by an Arab, spending six months aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and conducting groundbreaking scientific experiments for the betterment of humanity and scientific advancement.
As Sultan Al Neyadi, the UAE’s second astronaut, emerged from the Dragon spacecraft, he greeted onlookers with a smile and a wave. It’s worth noting that astronauts returning from extended periods in space often experience an adjustment period as they readapt to Earth’s gravity. The recovery process for the crew may take up to two hours to ensure their well-being after this remarkable mission.
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