India's import of Russian oil hit another record high last month as the South Asian nation nears the limit of its buying splurge from the major OPEC producer, according to Bloomberg News.
Viktor Katona, the head of crude analysis at Kpler stated that daily volumes climbed to 2.2 million barrels a day in June, rising for the 10th consecutive month. The analytics firm data shows that Russian purchases again exceeded the combined shipments of Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
India emerged as a key consumer of Russian oil following the invasion of Ukraine, but the nation’s buying could be near its limit due to infrastructure issues and the need to maintain good relations with other suppliers.
Kpler said that imports may dip next month because of lower Russian supply. State-owned Indian Oil Corp has been the biggest buyer of Russian crude over the past two months, followed by Reliance Industries Ltd, Bloomberg News reported.
Overall, India’s imports of Urals hit another record of 1.5 million barrels a day in June, the analytics firm said.
In May, India's rising imports of Russian oil was about 1.95 million barrels per day (bpd) denting purchases from Iraq and Saudi Arabia fell. India, the world's third biggest oil consumer and importer, buys more than 80 percent of its oil from overseas markets.
Oil refiners have been focusing on Russian oil since the West imposed sanctions over Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine. Russian oil accounted for about 40 per cent of India's crude imports in May, cutting imports from Iraq to a three-year low and from Saudi Arabia to their lowest since September 2021
In April the landed price of a tonne of oil from Russia was about $500, equivalent to $68.21/barrel using a conversion factor of 7.33, while that from Iraq cost $570 and from Saudi Arabia was $637.40, according to the government data. Price details for May arrival cargoes have not yet been updated.
(With Bloomberg inputs)
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