Indian Oil Corp., the country’s largest refiner, has bought about seven million barrels of crude for September delivery from suppliers in the United States, Canada and Abu Dhabi, traders said. The spot tender includes 4.5 million barrels of U.S. West Texas Intermediate Midland, 500,000 barrels of Western Canadian Select and two million barrels of Abu Dhabi’s Das grade. The unusually large purchase follows a pause in Indian state refiners’ spot buying of Russian oil, after discounts on Urals crude narrowed and Western sanctions tightened. New Delhi has also asked state-owned processors to draw up contingency plans to secure non-Russian supplies, signalling a potential rebalancing of one of the world’s biggest crude trade flows. Despite the official pause, ship-tracking data showed at least four tankers discharging Russian crude at Indian ports over the weekend, underscoring the complexity of unwinding the trade. India has been the largest buyer of seaborne Russian barrels since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and a sustained shift could raise demand for Atlantic Basin grades just as OPEC+ cites tight inventories and benchmark WTI holds near $70 a barrel.