Russia continues dominating India’s oil imports

The Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry has announced that India imported 25.369 million tons of oil in October 2024, marking a 33.3 per cent increase compared to October 2023.  

In monetary terms, these imports amounted to $14.65 billion, reflecting a 17.8 per cent year-on-year rise and a 54.7 per cent increase by September, Caliber.Az reports via Russian media.

India purchased 16.212 million tons in September, meaning that oil imports in October surged by 1.56 times compared to the previous month. Russia remained India's top supplier, delivering 10.29 million tons (+45 per cent by September and +72 per cent by October 2023).

Iraq followed with 5.72 million tons (+59 per cent by September and +27 per cent by October 2023), and Saudi Arabia provided 2.89 million tons (+52 per cent by September and +12.4 per cent by October 2023). The corresponding monetary values for these supplies were $5.75 billion, $3.15 billion, and $1.76 billion, respectively. Over the first ten months of the year, India imported a total of 200 million tons of oil, worth $121 billion, marking a 1.2 per cent increase compared to the same period last year.

However, the trend was negative up until September, with imports falling by 2.2 per cent compared to the previous year (174.6 million tons versus 178.5 million tons in the first nine months of 2023). India’s total oil imports for 2023 amounted to 235.839 million tons, a 4.5 per cent increase over the previous year, 82.207 million tons came from Russia (a 2.6-fold increase), 48.83 million tons from Iraq (a 7 per cent decrease), and 35.217 million tons from Saudi Arabia (a 12.4 per cent decrease). 

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, India has become the second-largest buyer of Russian crude, with its share of total oil imports increasing from less than 1 per cent to nearly 40 per cent. This surge was largely driven by discounted prices on Russian oil, due to the price cap imposed on Moscow and European countries avoiding purchases from Russia.

By Naila Huseynova