Mumbai: India’s total oil imports from its traditional supplier Saudi Arabia is seeing a gradual reduction as Indian refiners are trying to diversify their procurement sources globally.
During January 2015, India’s total imports from Saudi Arabia dropped 8.85 per cent to 3.19 million metric tonnes from 3.5 million mt imported during the same period last year.
During this period, according to Platts, an energy information provider, oil imports from Iraq, Venezuela and Mexico has seen a sharp increase. While imports from Iraq climbed 56 per cent to 2.48 million mt in January, the imports from Venezuela, the world’s fifth largest crude oil exporter went up by 67.62 per cent to 2.33 million mt.
“Indian refiners are importing Iraqi Basrah light crude oil to compensate for the drop in imports from Iran following western sanctions. The Indian refiners are now used to the Basrah light crude from Iraq,” said Eklavya Gupte, associate editor, Europe and Africa crude oil, Platts.
During the month of January 2015, the oil imports from Iran came down to 1.16 million mt from 1.6 million mt imported during January 2014. According to, Gupte, the ease of transportation is also another reason why Indian refiners have increased their shipments from newer areas. In the case of Venezuela and Mexico, Gupte pointed that the oil from these countries are cheaper as compared to others.
“For instance, the spread between North America’s West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude and North Sea Brent crude is almost $8-$10 per barrel. This is also prompting Indian refiners to source it from the American continent,” he added.
Even Chinese refiners have followed a similar path by reducing their imports from Saudi Arabia while increasing shipments from Iraq and Russia.
