India, the third-largest oil importer in the world, imported the same amount of crude oil as in the previous fiscal year, 2023–2024, which concluded on March 31. However, because of record-high imports of cheaper Russian crude and declining oil prices, India’s import bill decreased by over 16%. According to data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the Indian Oil Ministry, imports of crude oil into India totaled 232.5 million metric tonnes in the fiscal year 2023–2024.
This represents a small decrease from the 232.7 million tonnes of imports into India in the previous fiscal year ending March 31, 2023. The data shows that India’s spending on crude oil imports decreased by 16% to $132.4 billion in 2023/2024 from $157.5 billion in the fiscal year 2022/2023, even though quantities remained unchanged. This was mostly brought about by lower pricing in 2023–2024 compared to the prior fiscal year and by record amounts of less expensive Russian crude shipped to India during the majority of 2023.
Between April and September 2023, OPEC was thought to have retained a record-low share of India’s oil imports, as the third-largest crude importer in the world more than doubled its purchases of Russian crude. Russia accounted for 40% of India’s crude oil imports in the first half of 2023–2024, while the percentage of OPEC suppliers fell to a historic low of 46%, according to a Reuters study of data from 2001–2002. OPEC accounted for sixty-three percent of India’s oil imports between April and September of 2022.
In 2023–2024, fuel consumption in India increased by over 5%. According to data released on Wednesday by the Joint Organisations Data Initiative (JODI), India’s oil demand surged to an all-time high in February 2024, helping the world’s oil demand to rise by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) in February compared with January, reaching a five-year seasonal high. India’s total product demand reached an all-time high of 5.59 million bpd in February, up 265,000 bpd.
