-
Iraq, UAE gain as India’s Russian oil imports slip to 12-month low in Dec amid Moscow’s high domestic demand
India’s crude oil imports from West Asia—specifically Iraq and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—surged in December with Indian refiners looking to replace the shortfall in supplies from their largest source market Russia, which cut exports to meet heightened oil demand from its domestic refineries, shows an analysis of oil tanker data. Saudi Arabia, however, was unable to capitalise on the opportunity due to its barrels being priced higher than Iraqi and Emirati oil.
ding to industry watchers, domestic oil demand in Russia jumps towards the end of the year as the country’s refineries come out of the autumn refinery maintenance season and start clocking high capacity utilisation levels. The seasonally high demand for crude in Russia is expected to continue in January and a couple of subsequent months, which is likely to cap Russian oil exports and push India towards other key suppliers to bridge the supply gap.
In December, India’s imports of Russian crude dropped nearly 17 per cent sequentially to 1.48 million barrels per day (bpd), the lowest monthly level in 2024, per vessel tracking data from commodity market analytics form Kpler. Russia’s market share in India’s import basket in December contracted to 31.5 per cent from 38 per cent in November. India’s total oil imports in December were at 4.71 million bpd, up 0.5 per cent month-on-month.
“The lack of Russian medium sour (crude) grades has been a boon for Iraq as India needed to find grades that would be similar in quality to Urals (Russia’s flagship crude grade) and could be tapped into relatively quickly. As a consequence, Iraqi imports hit their highest since March,” said Viktor Katona, head of crude analysis at Kpler.
Share This
