Image source: RajivSutrani on Twitter
India has overtaken Saudi Arabia to become the largest refined crude oil exporter to Europe a year after it announced sanctions on import of Russian crude oil.
A recently released data by Kpler research has shown that India has overtaken Saudi Arabia to become largest exporter of refined crude oil to Europe. The daily crude oil imports from India to Europe has touched around 3,60,000 bpd which is the highest ever refined crude oil imports from India.
India which imports majority of its crude oil i.e. 44% of its total requirements from Russia increased its supply to Europe after the group sanctioned seaborne imports of Crude oil and later refined oil from Russia in the aftermath of Russia-Ukraine war that was started in March 2022.
This decision of sanctioning Russian crude oil imports has backstabbed the European continent as majority of Indian crude imports are from Russia which Europe seeks to sanction. And if this is not all, the freight cost of importing oil from India is extraordinarily high for European nations.
The major importers of crude oil from India are France, Turkey, Norway and other nations as per their demand.
Russia which was the largest supplier of crude oil to Europe has now turned out of the chart after the sanctions. Instead the majority of Europe now imports raw crude oil from the USA.
The major petroleum products that were imported from India include Diesel and Jet fuel. Thus it would not be incorrect to say that India is fueling European cars and Flights. India which exported close to 100000 bpd of refined crude to Europe increased its supply to 200000 bpd after the Russian invasion and has only increased since then.
Indian imports from Russia
Russia which didn’t even feature in the top 5 of the crude oil imports of India became the largest supplier of crude oil to India in October 2022. India currently imports 2 million barrels per day from Russia. Iraq followed by Saudi Arabia and UAE which were the largest exporters of crude to India were overtaken by Russia which started exporting oil at a discounted rate after the Ukrainian invasion in March 2022.
Though India majorly imports sour crude oil which contains high amounts of sulfur from India, it also imports sweet crude from regions of Far East Russia.
Though a 60$ price cap at present on Russian Oil at present; New Delhi nonetheless follows the policy of citizen first and energy security to continue oil imports
Indian oil imports
India imports the majority of its crude oil demands from foreign sources. As per a recent report from PPAC India imports 87.3% of its oil demand from imports. But petroleum exports are the largest exports by value form India. Thus India imports its required oil demand from foreign sources. Then refine the oil. Fulfills its needs and then exports to other countries.
Reliance Industries and Nayara are the major private oil refiners and exporters from India.
India has a total oil refining capacity of 250 million tonnes and expects to increase it to 500 million tonnes by the year 2025-26 keeping in mind the increasing oil demand.
