In May, Russia accounted for a rising share of total oil imports into India, reaching 45 percent. This shift is reported by Infotek citing data from Energy Intelligence.
Since the start of the year, Indian state owned entities have bought roughly 167 million barrels of Russian fuel, averaging about 1.1 million barrels per day. Last year the average was around 420 thousand barrels per day. The bulk of purchases comes from Bharat Petroleum, Indian Oil, and ONGC. India continues to buy Ural crude from Russia at a discount near ten dollars per barrel.
The Indian authorities show no intention of slowing these purchases. Oil demand in the country is rising. Gasoline use in May climbed by about 13 percent from April to around 841 thousand barrels per day, while diesel demand edged up by 0.9 percent to approximately 1.796 million barrels per day in the same period.
Oil shipments from Russia to India surged forty times during the 2022-2023 fiscal year, ending March 31, according to a RBI annual report cited by Business Standard. The regulator notes that Russian crude imports jumped from about $2.2 billion last year to roughly $31.02 billion, placing Russia ahead of Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates as India’s leading oil supplier in that period.