Russia becomes fourth largest supplier of oil to India in April, boosting deliveries threefold YoY
MOSCOW. June 14 (Interfax) - India increased oil imports by 14% year-on-year in April 2022, but saw them decline by 10% relative to March 2022, to 20.52 million tonnes, according to the country's Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
At the same time, the country imported a total of 77.23 million tonnes of oil in 4M, up 36% year-on-year.
Russia became the fourth largest supplier in April, exporting 1.62 million tonnes, almost 8% of total monthly imports. April imports were 3 times higher than in the same period in 2021 and 4 times higher than in March 2022 (396,900 tonnes). In March, Russia ranked only 11th in terms of the volume of supplies.
In January-April, India bought 2.28 million tonnes of oil from Russia (up 4.4-fold YoY), which represents about 3% of imports. At the same time, in February India did not buy Russian oil at all, and in January it bought 260,300 tonnes (1.9 times less YoY).
Media outlets reported earlier that since the start of the military operation in Ukraine, India's state-owned and private refineries have increased their oil purchases from Russia, as the Russian grades are offered at a significant discount to Brent.
On Tuesday, Indian publication The Economic Times, citing sources and analysts, reported that Russia became the second largest supplier of oil to India in May, pushing back Saudi Arabia. According to the publication, Russian grades accounted for about 16.5% of all Indian oil imports, while in the structure of Russian exports to India supplies reached 18% (relative to 1% before the military operation).
Import to India (tonnes)
Country April 2022 January-April 2022 1. Iraq 5 232 682,56 20 165 415,32 2. Saudi Arabia 3 783 271,40 15 790 791,18 3. United Arab Emirates 3 164 262,00 8 305 921,00 4. Russia 1 620 580,21 2 277 844,21 5. U.S.A. 1 557 374,54 7 460 051,01 6. Nigeria 922 433,00 4 071 587,40 7. Kuwait 707 525,60 4 029 549,60 8. Oman 692 916,38 2 535 382,82 9. Qatar 674 851,00 1 010 994,00 10. Mexico 573 500,52 2 034 828,03 11. Colombia 442 214,46 1 465 344,59 12. Angola 263 704,12 1 456 177,45 13. Egypt 205 942,24 957 643,04 14. Israel 149 837,03 300 006,03 15. Equatorial Guinea 145 740,10 370 300,07 16. Brazil 144 075,17 855 125,29 17. Azerbaijan 138 450,00 275 416,00 18. Ecuador 103 372,94 282 366,59 19. Malaysia 548,51 503 468,40 Total 20 523 281,80 77 225 544,19