Russia continues to dominate the suppliers of India, which relies on imports to meet its energy needs. During the month of June, India’s purchase of Russian oil has once again increased. The amount of crude oil imported by Russia alone to India last month has not been matched by the other 4 countries in the top-5 combined.
India bought this much oil from Russia in June
According to data from real-time energy cargo tracking firm Vortexa, Russia’s share in India’s crude oil imports increased to 42 percent during the month of June. A month before that, i.e. in May 2024, Russia’s share was 37 percent. Not only has Russia remained India’s largest supplier for many months, but in June its share alone has been more than the combined share of the other 4 top suppliers.
Even the four major countries together are behind Russia
According to the data, the five countries from which India bought the most crude oil during the last month include Russia, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and America. In India’s crude oil imports in June, Iraq’s share was 16 percent, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates’ share was 8-8 percent and America’s share was 7 percent. That is, the combined share of these four countries was 39 percent, while Russia alone imported 42 percent of the oil.
19 lakh barrels of oil came from Russia every day
Vortexa’s data shows that last month crude oil imports from Russia increased by 13 percent on a monthly basis to 19.2 lakh barrels per day. The share of Iraq, the second largest supplier, fell by 22 percent to 7.54 lakh barrels per day during this period. Imports from Saudi Arabia fell by 36 percent to 3.86 lakh barrels per day. US imports rose by 63 percent to 3.30 barrels per day.
This is why Russia became the largest supplier
India has been dependent on imports for crude oil and Gulf countries have been India’s traditional suppliers for decades. However, this picture started changing after the war between Russia and Ukraine began. Many strict economic sanctions were imposed on Russia by Western countries led by the US, after which Russia started selling crude oil at a discount. This became a golden opportunity for India and to reduce the import bill, the purchase of Russian oil available at cheap prices increased to a historic high.
This was the picture of imports last year
According to a Reuters report, in the year 2023, India bought 16.6 lakh barrels of crude oil per day from Russia. A year before that, in 2022, this figure was just 6.51 lakh barrels per day. That is, compared to 2022, India’s crude oil purchase from Russia in 2023 increased by a tremendous 155 percent. The Gulf countries suffered the most from this. India’s crude oil purchase from Gulf countries came down to a historic low last year.
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