Team Blitz India
NEW DELHI: Russia increased its share in Indian crude oil imports to nearly 40% in April from 30% in March, closing in on its all-time peak of 42% last July. This was necessitated as higher global oil prices pushed Indian refineriesto increase intake of discounted Russian barrels to reduce their average crude purchase cost.
Indian refiners imported 1.78 million barrels a day (mb/d) of crudeoil from Russia in April, up 19% from March, according to energy cargo tracker Vortexa. This exceeded China’s import of 1.27 mb/d and Europe’s 396,000 barrels per day (bp/d) of seaborne Russian crudein April.
Russia supplied more oil to India than its next three top suppliers – Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the UAE – put together in April.