New Delhi: While Russia remained the largest supplier of crude oil to India in February, Saudi Arabia narrowed the gap and emerged at the second position, with supplies from the West Asian country rising 30% to over 1 million barrels per day (mbd) as against 7.7 lakh barrels in January this year.According to data shared by global data and analytics services provider Kpler, imports from Saudi Arabia have largely remained between 6-7 lakh barrels per day over the past few years. This was the highest import of crude oil from the country in almost six years.In February, crude oil imports from Russia were recorded at slightly more than 1 MBD, compared to 1.1 MBD in January and 1.2 MBD last December.Sumit Ritolia, principal research analyst, refining and modeling at Kpler, said India’s dependence on crude from West Asia has increased in the last two-three months as refiners have moved away from a portion of Russian volumes. “As a result, the relative weight of Gulf origin crude oil in India’s import basket increased,” he said.However, the situation may change drastically this month as about 2.5-2.7 MBD of India’s crude oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, largely from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait. Military attacks in the Gulf have disrupted the movement of goods from West Asia and Indian refiners have been looking for alternative sources.Narrowing the gap is important in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s claim that Indian refiners will stop buying from Russia, with the government saying commercial interests will drive the decision.
