Because of the heavy discounts on Russian oil, Asian buyers began to prefer Russia over Iraq, writes Bloomberg.

The main buyers of Iraqi oil were China and India, but now they have increased the supply of raw materials from Russia. Basrah Medium and Heavy are the two main grades of oil exported by Iraq to international markets. Any reduction in volumes will be a blow to the second largest producer of OPEC, the newspaper notes.

Russia has begun to push Iraq out of the Asian market: no spot purchases of Iraqi Basrah Medium or Basrah Heavy have been made so far, and a tender for the sale of shale oil has not been concluded. As a result, Iraq began to discuss discounts with importers.

In May, China increased its imports of Russian crude oil by a record 55 percent year-on-year. Russia was in first place among all exporters, displacing Saudi Arabia. Oil deliveries from Russia to India increased 31 times.