Russia became the fourth-largest oil supplier to India in April. Russia’s share in India’s oil purchases rose to a record 6%, about 277,000 barrels per day in April. Indian Oil Corp. (IOC.NS), the country’s top refiner, bought its first-ever Russian Arco oil cargo last month.
Indians had bought stranded Russian oil while some European buyers had bought higher volumes of African and U.S. oil, he said. The share of African oil in India’s overall oil imports declined to about 6% in April from 14.5% in March, while that of U.S. almost halved to 3%.
Grades from Azerbaijan, Russia and Kazakhstan together accounted for about 11% of India’s imported oil in April, compared with about 3% in March. The share of Middle Eastern oil rose to 71% from 68%.
India’s oil imports from Russia are set to rise further to about 487,500 bpd in May, since refiners have ramped up purchases from Russia, preliminary data from Refinitiv flows show.
In April, Indian refiners shipped in 4.7 million bpd of oil, up 6.9% from the previous month and about 11.6% higher than a year earlier, when a second COVID-19 wave hit local oil demand.
India’s oil imports in April were high as refiners raised runs to meet local demand and gain from robust refining margins, Haq said.
“Also the companies got Russian grades at very tempting rates and they had to lift committed volumes under term contract with Middle Eastern producers,” Haq said.
The higher imports from Russia dragged down OPEC’s share of foreign supplies to India in April.
-Reuters
