On Wednesday, Reuters reported that India has been ramping up its purchases of Russian crude, and pushing its refineries to higher levels of output to supply the EU with additional diesel and jet fuel supplies, as Russian oil imports into the country reached record levels in the 2022-2023 fiscal year. The report cited preliminary ship-tracking data from Kpler and Vortexa.
Reuters implied that the European Union has been employing India as a “back door” to Russian petroleum supplies, given the fact that India’s sudden increase in imports of Russian oil began coincidental to the European Union’s banning of crude from the sanctioned nation.
Between 2022 and 2023, Kpler and Vortexa data show that India purchased between 970,000 and 981,000 barrels of Russian crude per day. The purchases made up over one fifth of the nation’s total imports of crude, which were between 4.5 million and 4.6 million barrels per day (bpd).
Russia’s heavily discounted crude oil has allowed Asian refiners to increase production and generate large profits off sales to the EU and elsewhere abroad.
Kpler data shows that prior to the conflict in Ukraine, India was supplying an average of 154,000 barrels of diesel and jet fuel per day to the European Union. Immediately after the EU imposed an embargo on imports of Russian petroleum products in February however, Indian import volumes surged to 200,000 bpd.
Meanwhile, diesel exports from India to Europe surged between 12% to 16%, to 150,000-167,000 bpd over the previous fiscal years total, as Western customers ceased importing Russian petroleum products. This brought India’s export share of the fuel from 21-24% in the previous year, up to 30%.
Kpler data showed that Europe overall accounted for roughly 50% of jet fuel exports from India, as France, Belgium, and the Netherlands were among the top European importers of Indian-refined diesel.
The report comes just as the Indian Oil Corporation, and Rosneft, the Russian energy major, inked a deal to “substantially increase” India’s supply of Russian crude, and diversify the grades available to the Asian nation.
As the world’s third biggest importer of crude oil, India began to increase its imports of Russian crude immediately after the beginning of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, as the West imposed sanctions on Russia, and it was forced to discount its crude to promote its sale.
Since 2021, Russia’s share of India’s total oil imports has risen from 1% to the present 35% share. In March, Russian oil deliveries to India rose for the seventh straight month, as Russia cemented its position as one of the top suppliers to Asia.
