New Delhi: Russia has overtaken Saudi Arabia to become India’s second largest oil supplier after Iraq as refiners snatched available Russian crude at huge discounts after the war in Ukraine, industry data showed.
Indian refiners bought nearly 25 million barrels of Russian oil in May, or more than 16 percent of all their oil imports.
The data shows that Russian-origin crude oil for the first time hit 5 per cent of India’s total marine imports in April, down from less than 1 per cent throughout 2021 and Q1 2022.
India, the world’s third largest oil importer and consumer, has long defended crude oil purchases from Russia after President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine.
The oil ministry said last month that “energy purchases from Russia are very low compared to India’s total consumption”.
Iraq remained India’s top supplier in May and Saudi Arabia is now the third largest supplier.
India has taken advantage of concessional prices to increase oil imports from Russia at a time when global energy prices are rising.
After the US and China, India is the world’s third largest oil consumer, with more than 85 percent of it imported.
After its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has now fewer buyers for Ural crude, some foreign governments and companies have decided to stay away from Russian energy exports, and its price has plummeted.
Indian refiners have taken advantage of this and bought Russian crude oil at a high discount of $30 a barrel.
Earlier, crude was disadvantageous due to high freight cost.
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