By Nidhi Verma
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s November crude imports showed Middle Eastern oil at a 9-month high while Russia accounted for its smallest share in three quarters, ship tracking data obtained from sources showed.
Refiners in India have been gorging on cheaper Russian oil despite problems posed by sanctions aimed at reducing Moscow’s oil revenue to fund its war in Ukraine.
The world’s third biggest oil importer and consumer in November shipped in 13% less Russia oil compared with October at 1.52 million barrels per day (bpd), about 32% of India’s overall intake, the data showed.
It imported 2.28 million bpd of Middle Eastern oil, an increase of 10.8% over October, accounting for about 48% of overall imports, the data showed.
Some refiners reduced intake of Russian oil due to maintenance turnarounds at their plants and continued to lift committed volumes under annual contracts with Middle Eastern producers, an India refining official said.
Russia’s oil exports from its key western ports in November fell due to higher demand from local refiners who had finished maintenance, sources said.
Also, Russia, an ally of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, promised to make additional cuts to its oil output from the end of 2024 to compensate for overproduction earlier.
India imported about 4.7 million bpd of oil in November, up 2.5% from October and up by 5% from a year earlier, the data showed.
Russian continued to be the top oil supplier to India followed by Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
Increased purchases of the Middle Eastern oil lifted the share of OPEC’s oil in India’s crude intake to an 8-month high of 53%.
In contrast, the share of Commonwealth of Independent States including Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, in India imports declined to 35% in November from 40% in October, the data showed.
(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; editing by Jason Neely)
