India’s imports of Russian oil rose to 18 percent of total petroleum crude imports in July, according to the latest Commerce Ministry data. India imported $2.88 billion worth of Russian petroleum crude in July. That was down 0.4 percent from June’s $2.89 billion. India’s petroleum crude imports fell by more than $1 billion in July compared to the previous month. However, the import of Russian oil rose to 17.9 percent. Russian oil imports rose more than 1 percent in July compared to 16.8 percent in June.
The commerce ministry said country-wise import data for August is not yet available. Imports of petroleum, crude and products increased to $17.7 billion last month from $16.11 billion in July, according to provisional data for August trade released on September 14. The increase in Russian oil imports has been remarkable in recent months. Last week, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking the decision to increase oil imports from Russia despite the sanctions imposed following the invasion of Ukraine in late February.
India’s import of petroleum crude from Russia during April-July was $8.95 billion. But the total figure for fiscal year 2022 was $9.87 billion. Russian oil accounted for 8.4 percent of India’s total petroleum imports in April. It rose to 12.8 percent in May, 16.8 percent in June and 17.9 percent in July.
A rapid increase in oil imports from Russia shows that it overtook Saudi Arabia to become the second largest importer in June. Russia is India’s second largest source of petroleum crude imports. It is also likely to surpass the number one position of Iraq in the coming months.
In July, India imported petroleum crude worth $3.2 billion from Iraq. This is just $321.7 million more than what was imported from Russia. Oil imports from Iraq were only 0.28 million tonnes higher than those from Russia.