“Without a pipeline they can’t take a really huge amount.”
A pipeline from Russia to India would have to go over the Himalayas. At minimum extremely expensive and more likely impossible.
It’s more of a surprise that Russia/USSR never built a pipeline to cross Siberia and get oil and gas to China and the rest of Asia. Russia would be in a much stronger position if it could sell it oil and gas to countries outside of Europe.
They do have a big pipeline across siberia to Vladivistok, that’s where a lot of the ships to India load up.
There’s a very big pipeline to China already but they’re going to double capacity in 3 years