NEW DELHI: For the primary time ever, India’s imports of Russian oil exceeded the mixed flows from Saudi Arabia and Iraq final month, Bloomberg reported citing information from Vortexa.
India has stepped up crude imports from sanctions-hit Russia amid heavy reductions provided by the European nation.

Gorging on Russian oil
India, the world’s third-largest crude importer after China and the United States, has been snapping up cheaper Russian oil ever since a number of the Western nations shunned it as a method of punishing Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
Indian refiners have benefited from the double bonus of cheaper cargoes and better margins for exported refined merchandise.
India is now on track to become Europe’s largest supplier of refined fuels this month whereas concurrently shopping for document quantities of Russian crude, based on information compiled by Bloomberg from analytics agency Kpler.

The enhance in India’s Russian oil imports comes at a time when Middle East crude exporters have determined to chop output and lift costs.
New highs
India’s crude imports from Russia are anticipated to achieve a document excessive in April as Asia’s second-biggest oil purchaser more and more turns away from its conventional suppliers within the Middle East, Reuters reported
However, general volumes from Russia are prone to stay regular in May as China competes for the Urals grade, mentioned Serena Huang, an analyst on the delivery analytics firm.
In March, India’s imports of crude oil from Russia touched a brand new excessive of 1.64 million barrels per day, virtually double the purchases from Iraq – the nation’s conventional high oil provider.
Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February final yr, India was a minor importer of Russian crude, with Refinitiv information displaying common arrivals of about 44,500 bpd within the 12 months from January 2021 to February 2022.
As Russian oil was more and more sanctioned and shunned by European patrons and a few in Asia, comparable to Japan, the steep reductions on provide led to India’s refiners shopping for growing volumes.
By July final yr, India’s imports from Russia had been as much as about 857,000 bpd, and so they have steadily elevated since then, earlier than sharply accelerating this yr.
(With inputs from companies)