India's central bank tells refiners: stop buying dollars

The Reserve Bank of India has ordered state-run oil refiners to stop buying dollars on the spot market, directing them to use a government-backed credit line instead. This isn’t a technical adjustment — it’s a deliberate uncoupling. India imports nearly 5 million barrels of oil per day. For decades, every one of those barrels required buying USD. The Hormuz crisis exposed the fragility of that chain. Now the RBI is actively building infrastructure that doesn’t need the dollar at all. The question isn’t whether de-dollarization is happening. It’s how fast.