India’s crude oil imports from Russia now double of traditional top supplier Iraq

NEW DELHI : India now imports twice as much crude oil from Russia as it does from Iraq, the country’s traditional main oil supplier, reaching a new high of 1.64 million barrels per day inMarch.But,asgrowthhasslowed,the purchases seem to have reached a plateau.

According to energy cargo tracker Vortexa, Russia remained the sole largest supplier of crude oil, which is transformed into petrol and diesel at refineries,forasixthconsecutivemonth by providing more than one-third of all the oil India purchased. Refiners continue to snap up plentiful Russian cargo available at a discount to other grades.

Prior to the start of the RussiaUkraine war in February 2022, Russia had a market share of less than 1% in India’s imports; by March 2022, that percentagehadincreasedto1.64million barrelsperdayor34%.

The amount of oil purchased from RussiainMarchwasdoubletheamount of oil purchased from Iraq, which has been India’s top oil supplier since 2017–18, at 0.82 million barrels per day (bpd).

India, the third-largest importer of petroleum after China and the United States (US), has been buying relatively cheap Russian oil that was on sale after some nations in the West avoided it as retaliation for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

India’s petroleum imports from Russia increased a little every month from1.62millionbpdinFebruary.

Saudi Arabia ranked as the secondlargest crude oil exporter to India in March, selling 986,288 bpd, according to Vortexa. Iraq was the third largest provider,selling821,952bpd.