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India sees 34 per cent fall in oil imports from Saudi Arabia; imports from Russia increase
India’s crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia declined by 34 per cent in July, according to energy cargo tracker Vortexa. A Moneycontrol report said that India imported 484,000 barrels of crude oil per day in July, compared to 734,000 barrels per day (bpd) in June.
The decline in India’s imports came after the West Asian kingdom announced supply cuts of one million bpd in July.
Saudi Arabia and a number of other oil-producing nations have cut oil supply in a bid to stabilise the global oil prices, Apart from Saudi Arabia, Iraq had decided to lower its oil supply by over 200,000 bpd through the end of the year. In May, Russia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries announced a cut in oil production by 1.6 million bpd for the rest of the year.
Increase in crude oil imports from Russia
In the meantime, Russia continued to be India’s top crude oil supplier in July. According to Viktor Katona, head of crude analysis at Kpler’s, daily volumes increased for the tenth straight month in June, reaching 2.2 million barrels per day. The data reveals that India received more crude oil from Moscow than it did from Saudi Arabia and Iraq, its usual suppliers, put together.
Following the invasion of Ukraine, India became a prime consumer of Russian oil, but due to infrastructural problems and the need to maintain good relations with other suppliers, the country’s oil purchase may have reached its limit.
Kpler however predicted that due to a decline in Russian oil production, imports may fall next month. According to a Bloomberg report, Reliance Industries Ltd. is the second-largest consumer of Russian crude after state-owned Indian Oil Corporation.
India, the third-largest consumer and importer of oil in the world, purchases more than 80 per cent of its oil from foreign markets.
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