India has ramped up purchases of Russian oil in June, importing more than the combined volumes from Middle Eastern suppliers such as Saudi Arabia and Iraq, amid market volatility triggered by Israel’s dramatic attack on Iran.
The US military struck three sites in Iran early Sunday, directly joining Israel which first struck Iranian nuclear sites on June 13.
Indian refiners are likely to import 2-2.2 million barrels per day of Russian crude oil in June – the highest in the last two years and more than the total volumes bought from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait, preliminary data by global trade analytics firm Kpler showed.
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India’s oil imports from Russia were 1.96 million barrels per day (bpd) in May.
Imports from the United States also rose to 439,000 bpd in June, a big jump from 280,000 bpd purchased in the previous month.
Full-month projections for imports from the Middle East stand at around 2 million bpd, lower than the previous month’s buying, according to Kpler.
India, the world’s third-largest oil-importing and consuming nation, bought from abroad around 5.1 million barrels of crude oil, which is converted into fuels like petrol and diesel in refineries.
India, which has traditionally sourced its oil from the Middle East, began importing a large volume of oil from Russia soon after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. This was primarily because Russian oil was available at a significant discount to other international benchmarks due to Western sanctions and some European countries shunning purchases.
This led to India’s imports of Russian oil seeing a dramatic rise, growing from less than 1 per cent of its total crude oil imports to a staggering 40-44 per cent in a short period.
The conflict in the Middle East has so far not impacted oil supplies.
“While supplies remain unaffected so far, vessel activity suggests a decline in crude loadings from the Middle East in the coming days,” Sumit Ritolia, Lead Research Analyst, Refining & Modeling at Kpler, told PTI.
“Shipowners are hesitant to send empty tankers (ballasters) into the Gulf, with the number of such vessels dropping from 69 to just 40,
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