Arab News | India sees surge in crude oil imports from Middle East

NEW DELHI: India’s crude oil imports from the Middle East reached 3 million barrels daily in September, latest shipping data showed, indicating a return to levels before the US-Israeli war on Iran disrupted global fuel shipments. 

India is heavily reliant on imported crude and fuel, and surging energy prices due to the war in the Middle East are squeezing state-run refiners and affecting the broader economy. 

In September, oil imports flowing through the Strait of Hormuz increased, averaging around 1.3 million barrels per day. The volume was the highest recorded since February, before the start of the war, according to Indian media reports citing data from trade intelligence firm Kpler. 

India’s total crude imports from the Middle East averaged between 2.7 and 3 million barrels per day, which includes Saudi supplies sent via the Red Sea. Supplies from key regional producers Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait increased in volume last month compared with August. 

In September, India imported about 575,000 barrels per day from Iraq, 566,000 barrels per day from Saudi Arabia, and 331,000 barrels per day from Kuwait. The supplies from Iraq alone grew from the previous month by more than 250 percent, while those from the Kingdom increased by about 63 percent. 

Relying on Gulf sources remains an efficient choice for India, said Madhu Nainan, senior correspondent at Indian oil and gas publication Petrowatch. 

“For India, the Gulf is the closest source for crude oil and Indian refineries have been traditionally built and configured to process Gulf crude oil,” he told Arab News on Saturday.

Shipment time is also a factor, he added. 

Nainan said that freight shipped from the Gulf takes six or seven days to reach India. Tankers from the Gulf take the same amount of time, while a tanker from the US takes at least a month to arrive.

“Russia also takes a long time, Russia is also expensive,” he added.

India’s oil imports from Russia have been declining for the second straight month, according to reports, citing tighter availability of Russian crude amid Ukrainian attacks on Moscow’s oil and gas infrastructure. 

Though India was the biggest buyer of discounted Russian crude in the aftermath of Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, its imports from Russia have declined for the second straight month, according to reports, citing tighter availability of Russian crude amid Ukrainian attacks as well as rising political pressure from the US. 

On the other hand, oil imports from the Middle East have been rising in recent months, following a recovery in movement flows through Hormuz and the restoration of Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline. Crude oil shipments from the region are now at 98 percent of pre-war levels, JPMorgan Chase & Co said in a recent note. 

“So, closest for India is the Middle East, whether it is Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, UAE,” Nainan said. 

“It makes sense for India to have crude oil from this region.”