India’s total imports declined by 13% in March from February as the Iran war crippled Middle Eastern supply that couldn’t be offset by record-high Russian oil imports.
India, the world’s third-biggest crude oil buyer, imported a total of 4.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude in March, down by 13% from pre-war levels, according to shipping and industry sources’ data cited by Reuters.
While India’s imports of crude from the Middle East fell materially, imports from Russia surged and almost doubled in March compared to February. Middle Eastern supply to India plunged by 61% to 1.18 million bpd last month, while Russian supply almost doubled from February to 2.25 million bpd in March, thanks to the U.S. waiver on purchases of Russian crude that’s already loaded on tankers.
Following subdued purchases between November and February, India’s imports of Russian crude soared last month by 90%, although overall Indian crude imports slumped due to the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Since the U.S. waiver on purchases of Russian crude on tankers, Indian refiners have snapped up dozens of millions of barrels of the oil as key supplies from the Middle East are trapped.
India’s Russian crude imports are set to remain at near record-high levels in April, too, after the U.S. Treasury Department this weekend extended the waiver for an additional two weeks until mid-May.
While Indian refiners are scooping up Russian oil, supply from the Middle East is plunging as only a handful of oil tankers have passed the de facto closed Strait of Hormuz since the war began.
As a result, Russia remained the single biggest oil supplier to India in March. Saudi Arabia was the second largest supplier, overtaking Iraq, whose crude exports are much more constrained than Saudi Arabia’s. The Kingdom has the option of re-routing a large part of volumes via Yanbu on the Red Sea, but Iraq’s shipments from Basrah remain dependent on the Strait of Hormuz.
As Iraqi volumes plunged, Angola emerged as India’s third-biggest crude supplier, followed by the UAE and Iraq, according to the data obtained by Reuters.
