India continues to import more oil from Russia

India continues to acquire more inexpensive Russian oil, as the latter purchased 1.96 million barrels per day from the latter in May, 15% more than the previous peak in April.

India currently imports more Russian oil than it does oil from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States combined, according to the news agency PTI.

“Right present, roughly 42% of the crude oil that India bought in May comes from Russia. According to the research, this is an individual country’s largest proportion in recent years.

It claimed that the typical Middle Eastern suppliers suffered as the Russian market share increased.

The lowest shipment volume from Saudi Arabia has been recorded since February 2021 at 560,000 tonnes. A record low of 39% of India’s oil imports came from the oil producers cartel OPEC in May, it was noted.

OPEC, primarily in the Middle East and Africa, accounted for up to 90% of all the crude oil India imported at one point, but this percentage has been declining ever since Russian oil became affordable following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February of last year, it stated.

For the eighth consecutive month, it was noted that Russia remained the only supplier of crude oil, accounting for 42% of all the oil that India bought.

Due to high freight expenses, Indian refiners had previously avoided purchasing Russian oil, but now that several Western countries have rejected it in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, they are snatching up the copious cargo available at a discount to other grades, it was reported.

“The purchases from Russia in May were more than double that of 0.83 million bpd of oil purchased from Iraq, which had been India’s top oil supplier since 2017–18,” it said. Saudi Arabia has dropped to third place.

“In April, the average price of Russian oil arriving on Indian coasts, including freight charges, was USD 68.21 per barrel, the lowest price since the Ukraine War. While Iraqi oil was priced at USD 77.77 per barrel in April, the average cost of Saudi Arabian petroleum shipped to India was USD 86.96 per barrel, it was noted.

After the European Union prohibited imports in December, Russia claimed that it was filling the vacuum in its energy exports by exporting record volumes of crude oil to India.