India Crude Oil Import: The Russia-Ukraine War, which began in February last year, has had a massive impact on global trade. Due to this war, the figures of import and export from wheat to crude oil have changed. It has also made a deep impact on India-Russia trade relations. Russia’s share in India’s crude oil imports, which was negligible before the start of the war, has increased manifold during the last one year.
So much oil coming everyday
According to the data, India bought an average of 1.6 million barrels of crude oil everyday during the month of February 2023 from Russia. In this way, Russia remained India’s largest crude oil supplier even last month. Russia’s dominance in India’s crude oil basket can be gauged from the fact that even traditional suppliers like Iraq and Saudi Arabia together lag behind Russia’s supply.
Russia’s share increased in this way
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, after which the war began in Eastern Europe. Before the start of this war, Russia’s share in India’s total crude oil imports was less than one percent. According to the figures of the last month i.e. February 2023, Russia alone is importing 35 percent crude oil to India. In this way, Russia remains number one in selling crude oil to India for the fifth consecutive month.
India is taking advantage of the opportunity
India is currently passing through a phase of rapid economic growth. Due to this, India’s energy needs have also increased rapidly. At present, India is the third largest market for crude oil after China and America. Every year India spends a major part of its foreign exchange reserves on buying crude oil. Now, due to the war, when America and its allies imposed many economic sanctions on Russia, Russia started selling crude oil at a discount. Countries like India seized this opportunity to reduce the burden on foreign exchange reserves and reduce the import bill. Right now many Indian companies are buying cheap crude oil from Russia.
The damage done to these countries
This unexpected increase in the import of crude oil from Russia has caused losses to countries like Saudi Arabia and America. During the month of February, the import of crude oil from Saudi Arabia has decreased by 16 percent on a monthly basis. Similarly, imports from America have decreased by 38 percent on a monthly basis during this period. Right now Russia alone is selling more oil to India than Iraq and Saudi Arabia, while Iraq and Saudi Arabia have been India’s biggest crude oil suppliers for decades.
Crude oil also comes from these countries
During the month of February, India purchased an average of 9.40 lakh barrels of crude oil from Iraq every day. Before Russia, this was India’s biggest supplier. At the same time, Saudi Arabia is now in third place with an average of 6.48 lakh barrels. The United Arab Emirates has now overtaken the US to become India’s fourth largest supplier. In February, an average of 4.04 lakh barrels came from UAE everyday. At the same time, the import of crude oil from America came down to 2.48 lakh barrels per day.
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