New Delhi — The share of OPEC oil in India’s imports fell to a record low in fiscal year 2024-25 as refiners continued to gorge on cheaper oil from Russia, the top oil supplier to New Delhi for the third straight year, data obtained from trade and industry sources showed.
India, the world’s third biggest oil importer and consumer, has been tapping Russian oil sold at a discount after Western nations imposed sanctions on Moscow over the Ukraine war.
The South Asian nation imported an average of 4.88 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil in the fiscal year to March 2025, a growth of 5% over the previous year.
Import of Russian oil rose 7.3% to 1.76 million bpd, raising its share marginally to 36% while OPEC’s share slipped slightly to 48.5%, the data showed.
Russia is an ally of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries but has eaten into the market of key OPEC producers from the Middle East.
Altered trade flows due to geopolitical tensions and costlier shipments from some traditional suppliers have pushed India to diversify sources of crude and tap cheaper supplies from even far-flung areas such as Russia.
Iraq and Saudi Arabia were the second and third biggest sources of crude for India.
India’s oil imports from Saudi Arabia in 2024-25 plunged to the least in 14 years while those from Iraq declined to a four-year low, data compiled by Reuters showed.
Indian refiners restricted purchase of Saudi oil due to higher official selling prices set by state-owned Saudi Aramco for most of the year, industry sources said.
Lower imports from Iraq and Saudi Arabia dragged down the share of Middle East supplies in India’s crude imports.
In March, India’s imports of Russian oil rose about 11% from February to 1.7 million bpd, the highest in 5 months, the data showed.
India imported 5.3 million bpd oil in March, up 1.3% from the previous month, the data showed. The U.S. was the fourth largest oil supplier to India during the month.
*Nidhi Verma; editing: Florence Tan and Mrigank Dhaniwala – Reuters
