India pumps up Russia oil buy by 45% in March

NEW DELHI: India’s oil purchases from Russia have increased by nearly 45% in March, rising from around 1 million barrels a day (mbd) in Feb to 1.5 mbd in the first 11 days of the month.With transit through the Strait of Hormuz disrupted since the beginning of the conflict 12 days ago, supplies from oil-rich West Asian countries have fallen drastically compared with the flows in Feb. In the first 11 days of March, India received 0.6 mbd from Iraq, 0.4 mbd from Saudi Arabia and 0.1 mbd from the UAE. Saudi Arabia was the second-largest supplier of crude, behind Russia, in Feb, with daily supplies of a little over 1 million barrels. Iraq also delivered nearly 1 mbd to India last month, while the UAE supplied 0.6 mbd.India imported nearly 5.2 mbd of crude in Feb, which has come down to 4.5 mbd in March. Energy analysts said the number of cargoes is likely to come down further as most vessels delivering supplies this month had departed from their origin ports before the conflict broke out. Sumit Ritolia, lead analyst at Kpler, said with the US allowing flexibility for India to continue purchasing Russian barrels, trade flows have picked up considerably, enabling India to import volumes well above earlier baseline levels. “Market tracking also indicates that a substantial amount of Russian crude cargoes are currently on the water, particularly moving toward Indian ports. As on March 11, arrivals of Russian crude into India are already estimated at around 1.5 million barrels a day, reflecting the strong pace of inflows,” Ritolia said.