India saw a significant drop in crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia in September, with a notable decline of 36 percent. An energy cargo tracker highlighted this massive shift in India’s crude oil import pattern during the period.
The slump in imports of crude oil from Saudi comes after it announced an extension of the one million barrels per day (bpd) production cut until December 2023. Russia, too, extended its voluntary export cut of 3,00,000 bpd until the end of the year.
In September, Saudi Arabia supplied 547,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil to India, as against 855,000 bpd in the previous month. Meanwhile, India’s crude oil imports from countries including Russia and Iraq witnessed a slight increase in the month.
Russia continued to remain the top supplier of crude oil to India in September providing 1.5 million bpd. In September, Russian oil constituted 38 percent of India’s total oil imports.
Russia has become a major source of crude oil for India ever since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, and has overtaken Saudi Arabia and Iraq to become India’s top crude supplier. India has been importing the maximum crude oil from Russia since October 2022.
Moscow has been diverting its oil to Asian countries, especially India and China, at discounted rates ever since the European Union (EU) and the US imposed a slew of sanctions on Moscow after the invasion of Ukraine. However, discounts from Russia have come down in recent months, which have in turn resulted in the cost of oil going above the price cap of $60 per barrel.
India majorly gets discounts on Russian Urals, the sour grade of crude, which constitutes the majority of imports from Moscow. In September, India imported 1.1 million bpd of Russian Urals.
Other than Russia, India’s crude oil imports also increased from Iraq and the US in September. India imported 946,000 bpd of crude oil from Iraq in September, an increase from 854,000 bpd in August. Similarly, crude oil imports from the US stand at 217,000 bpd in September, as against 166,000 bpd in August.
Despite the decline in imports from Saudi, India’s total crude oil imports remained steady in September on a month-on-month basis. India’s total crude oil imports in September were 4.19 million bpd, compared to 4.34 million bpd in the last month. India imported oil from Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the US, the UAE, and some other countries.
Data from the oil ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) showed that crude oil imports from India have been steady in the current financial year, as compared to last year. India’s crude oil imports stand at 98.4 million metric tonne (MMT) in the first five months of the current financial year, as against 99 MMT in the same period last year.
Source: Hellenic Shipping News
