Indian refiners turned to
imports from Latin America and Africa after supplies from the
Middle East were disrupted as the Israeli-U.S. war on Iran
restricted shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, data provided by
trade sources show.
Refiners in the world’s third-largest oil importer and
consumer bought most of their crude from the nearby Middle East
until the war broke out at the end of February.
In April and May, Indian refiners raised imports from
Venezuela, Brazil, Angola and Nigeria to make up the shortfall,
as well as continuing to buy Russian oil, preliminary data from
Kpler show.
Last month, India skipped purchases from Iraq as exports
were halted, while it received Iranian oil after a gap of seven
years following a temporary waiver granted by Washington to help
stabilise global oil prices.
New Delhi reduced imports from Russia by about 29.4% from
March to 1.6 million barrels per day as Nayara Energy shut its
400,000-bpd refinery for maintenance, the data showed.
However, in May, India is due to get about 1.9 million bpd
of Russian oil and about 41,000 bpd of Iraqi oil, preliminary
data from Kpler showed.
Overall, India imported 4.57 million bpd oil in April,
unchanged from March, but down 15.5 per cent from a year earlier, the
data showed.
Imports from the United Arab Emirates rebounded in April to
669,700 bpd from 230,600 bpd in March while intake of Saudi
Arabian oil stayed at about 619,500 bpd, the data showed.
The UAE and Saudi Arabia are the only Gulf producers with
pipelines that export crude bypassing the Strait of Hormuz,
while Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar, and Bahrain rely on the waterway for
shipments.
The share of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting
Countries, including the UAE as its member during the month, in
India’s imports rose to 45.2 per cent in April from about 30 per cent in March,
the data showed. The UAE exited OPEC in May, freeing it from oil output quotas.
Higher imports from the UAE helped arrest a decline in the
Middle East’s share of India’s imports, while the share of
Russian oil declined to about 35 per cent from nearly 50 per cent.
Russia remained India’s top oil supplier, followed by the
UAE and Saudi Arabia. Brazil was the fourth-largest supplier,
while Venezuela ranked fifth. Venezuela is on course to become
the fourth-largest supplier in May, Kpler data showed.