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India emerges as top buyer of Venezuelan crude oil in December, January
After a gap of three years India emerged as the top buyer of Venezuelan crude for two consecutive months of December 2023 and January 2024, as per shipping fixtures and ship tracking data.
Indian refiners had stopped oil imports from the Latin American country in 2020 after the United States (US) imposed sanctions on Caracas. With Washington temporarily easing restrictions on Venezuela’s oil sector in October 2023, Indian refiners — mainly Reliance Industries (RIL) — are back in the market for Venezuelan oil that is likely available at a discounted price.
Crude oil dispatches from Venezuela to India in December were almost 191,600 barrels per day (bpd), while in January, the loadings rose to over 254,000 bpd — nearly half of the Latin American nation’s total oil exports of almost 557,000 bpd for the month, according to data from commodity market analytics firm Kpler. The data shows that Venezuela last dispatched crude oil to the South Asian country in September 2020, with the last of the deliveries at Indian ports in November of that year.
India — specifically private sector refiners RIL and Nayara Energy (NEL) — was a regular buyer of Venezuelan crude prior to imposition of US sanctions in 2019. Following the sanctions, oil imports from Venezuela stopped within a few months. As per India’s official trade data, Venezuela was New Delhi’s fifth-largest supplier of oil in 2019, providing close to 16 million tonnes of crude to Indian refiners.
In October 2023, the US eased sanctions on Venezuela’s petroleum sector, authorising oil exports without limitation for six months. Venezuela, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), has the largest proven oil reserves in the world.
Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has maintained for long that India is willing to buy Venezuelan oil if the economics are favourable. Given the volatility in the oil markets over the past nearly two years, the government has held the view that India will buy cheaper oil from the available sources.
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