India has set a record for purchases of Russian oil
22 July 16:11
Russian oil shipments to India reached a new all-time high in June, Reuters reports, citing industry sources, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
Last month, Indian refineries purchased 2.64 million barrels per day from Russia—37% more than in May. As a result, Russia accounted for about half of India’s total oil imports. At the same time, the country’s refiners also increased their purchases of heavy crude from Brazil, Venezuela, and Angola.
At the end of the second quarter, Russian oil accounted for 41% of India’s total imports, compared to 38% during the same period a year earlier. The share of Middle Eastern suppliers fell from 41% to 31% due to the war in Iran, which blocked the Strait of Hormuz.
India’s oil imports from the Middle East fell by about 27% from April to June, to 1.55 million barrels per day. At the same time, supplies from CIS countries, including Russia, rose by 8.3% to 2.26 million barrels per day.
Since July, India has been returning refined Russian oil to the Russian market in the form of gasoline, which Russian oil companies are now forced to import for the first time due to drone attacks on refineries.
According to Reuters, the first shipment of 42,000 metric tons from India’s largest refinery, Vadinar (49% owned by Rosneft), will arrive at the port of Vitino in the Murmansk region on July 26. Another tanker is currently heading to Suez, where the gasoline will be transshipped to another vessel that will transport it to Russia.
Indian refineries are purchasing Russian crude at significant discounts: in early July, these discounts reached $10 per barrel and had increased 3 to 10 times compared to the same period last year.
Transportation costs must also be added to the discounts on Urals crude—at the height of the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, shipping a single barrel of oil to India cost $25, notes Janis Klug, a research fellow at the German Institute for International Security Affairs. Currently, tanker companies’ services have become cheaper, but the total discount for India exceeds $20, he estimates.
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