India’s crude oil imports from Russia hit a new record high of 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) in June, having risen in 10 consecutive months, per data from analytics firm Kpler cited by Bloomberg.
As in May, Indian oil imports from Russia in June exceeded the combined imports from the next two biggest suppliers, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, according to Viktor Katona, head of crude analysis at Kpler.
Indian imports of the flagship Russian grade Urals jumped to another record of around 1.5 million bpd in June, Kpler data showed.
India’s oil imports from Russia have continued to surge in recent months as cheaper Russian crude exports find more and more buyers in the world’s third-largest crude oil importer.
In May, India shattered its previous record of imports of Russian crude and took in 1.96 million bpd of crude from Russia—an all-time high at the time.
In May, India’s Russian oil imports alone were higher than the 1.74 million bpd in India’s combined imports from the next four largest suppliers - Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the U.S.
Russian oil accounted for a massive 42% of all Indian crude imports, compared to negligible volumes India had imported before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
More than a year since the war began, India has turned from a marginal buyer of Russian crude to the most important market for Moscow’s oil alongside China. Indian refiners, not complying with the G7 price cap and looking for cheap opportunistic purchases, have snapped up many of the Russian Urals cargoes, which used to go to northwest Europe before the EU embargo.
Going forward, India may soon hit its limits on imports of Russian crude, due to infrastructure constraints and the need to keep good trade relations with other crude oil suppliers, according to analysts at Kpler.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com