Saudi Arabia emerged as the second largest oil supplier to India after a three -month gap, overtaking Russia with a thin margin, while Iraq maintained the top position in August, data from industry and trading sources showed.
India, the third largest oil importer and consumer in the world, sent in 863,950 barrels per day (BPD) of crude oil from Saudi Arabia, up 4.8% from the previous month, while the purchase from Russia fell 2.4% to 855,950 BPD, data shows .
Apart from the Saudi profits, the oil part of the export state of petroleum exports in India fell to 59.8%, the lowest in at least 16 years because India cuts African imports.
India has become an Oil Buyer No. 2 Russia after China because others have cut off purchases after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine at the end of February.
The two countries, who want to secure raw materials with discounts compared to supplies from other countries, are seen as bearings for the impact of Western sanctions on Moscow.
New Delhi has not openly condemned Moscow because of ‘special military action’ in Ukraine. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet President Putin on Friday in addition to the peak of the Shanghai cooperation organization, the Regional Security Block.
Indian monthly oil imports from Russia have declined after reaching a record in June because Moscow has narrowed the discounts offered for its oil while the refiners raised more inventory of terms.
“In the end you cannot cut Saudi supply because the clause in the term contract and Russia can reduce its discounts because of high demand, especially in Asia,” said Ehsan Ul Haq, an analyst with a refinitiv.
Indian crude oil imports as a whole in August decreased to the lowest five months from 4.45 million BPD, down 4.1% from July, due to maintenance in several refineries, the data showed.
The higher Kaspia marine oil intake, especially from Kazakhstan, Russia and Azerbaijan, has achieved India’s purchases from Africa and other countries.
The African oil section in August decreased to 4.2% while the Latin American part dropped to 5.3% from about 7.7%, data showed.
“Indian diesel demand is lower during the rainy season, which means low imports of West African oil,” said Haq.
In August, the United Arab Emirates lived in No. 4 While Kazakhstan replaced Kuwait to become the fifth largest oil supplier to India, followed by the United States.
The increase in the purchase of Saudi oil and Emirati raised the Middle East in India to 59% in August from 54% in July while CIS countries rose to about a quarter of 23%, data showed.
Russian oil contributed around 16% to import India in April-August, the first five months of this fiscal year, in 757,000 BPD compared to 20,000 BPD a year earlier, or 0.5% shares, data showed.
It raised the part of the CIS countries in the Indian April-August oil import to around 20% of the 2.9%, data showed.
