New Delhi: Massive increase in crude oil imports from Russia to India. India bought 1.4 lakh barrels of oil per day in January, a growth of 9.2 percent compared to December. Currently Brent crude price is $83 per barrel. Russia supplies crude oil to India at less than $60.
India buys it in large quantities because it gives a huge profit on the cost of purchase. Before the Russia-Ukraine war, Russian oil accounted for only 0.2 percent of India’s total crude oil imports. Now it is 28 percent.
Russia was ranked 17th with a share of 0.1 percent of total imports in 2021. Now Russia is number one. Imports from OPEC countries, the traditional sources, have also fallen sharply.
OPEC imports down
In 2008, crude oil imports from OPEC (Gulf, Africa) accounted for 87 percent. In 2022, it will drop to 64.5 percent. Iraq was the largest supplier of oil to India. Last month, Iraqi oil imports rose 11 percent from December to 9.83 lakh barrels per day.
India and China along with Russia
In the wake of the war in Ukraine, the United States and Europe have imposed sanctions on Russian oil. In this situation, Russia approached India and China with a huge discount. Now China and India are Russia’s biggest markets respectively.
5 lakhs
Russia has announced that it will cut crude oil production by 5 lakh barrels per day in March. Estimates suggest that this could either be because sales are not commensurate with production or it could be a ploy to raise prices.