India’s import of Russian oil increased to almost 18% of its total petroleum crude imports in value terms in July. According to the commerce ministry data. India purchased Russian crude oil worth $2.88 billion in July, a slight decrease of 0.4% from the $2.89 billion figure for June. Russian oil represented 17.9% of all petroleum crude imports in July compared to 16.8% in June.
India imported $8.95 billion worth of crude oil from Russia between April and July. Adversely, the total amount for FY22 was $9.87 billion. Another indicator of how quickly Russia has established itself as a major supplier of petroleum crude to India is the fact that, in April, 8.4% of India’s total petroleum crude imports came from Russia.
Russian oil shipments increased quickly, overtaking Saudi Arabia in June to become India’s second-largest source of petroleum crude. Iraq, the current leader, will be crossed in the upcoming months. India imported crude oil from Iraq for $3.2 billion in July, barely $321.7 million more than it imported from Russia. Only 0.28 million tonnes more oil was imported from Iraq than from Russia in terms of volume.
The increase in Indian government purchases of Russian oil in recent months has been notable as it reflects the discounts that have been made available. This percentage increased to 12.8% in May, 16.8% in June, and finally 17.9% in July. Despite India’s petroleum crude imports declining by more than a billion dollars from June to July.