Saudi Arabia has displaced Russia as India's top oil supplier.

Russian oil's share of Indian imports fell in January to its lowest since October 2022, when India was only increasing purchases from Russia, with whom it hadn't had any oil trading relations before the war in Ukraine. To offset the decline, India significantly increased purchases from the Middle East, reaching 55% compared to Russia's 21.2%.

This hasn't been seen since the fall of 2022, when Urals, the crude oil Europe was preparing to phase out, began displacing Middle Eastern grades in Indian imports. February data, however, "already shows that Saudi Arabia has regained its position as India's top supplier, with imports reaching a new record high," Sumit Ritola, lead analyst at Kpler, told Reuters.

In January, India received 1.1 million barrels of Russian oil per day, down 23.5% from December and a third from a year earlier. The decline is likely to continue, says Ritola: while imports in February will total approximately 1-1.2 million barrels, only 800,000 barrels per day are expected in March.

According to Kpler, Russian supplies will gradually decline in the medium term but will not cease completely.

In particular, Nayara Energy, controlled by Rosneft and subject to EU sanctions, will continue to receive them. This company, with a refinery capacity of 400,000 barrels per day, has no other sources.

The share of imports from Latin American countries reached a 12-month high of around 10% in January.

source: The Moscow Times https://archive.is/maYro