India top buyer of Russian crude, private refiners lead
20 Jan 2023
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Business Line - India has emerged the largest importer of seaborne Russian crude oil, surpassing China in the first fortnight of this month, with private refiners such as Reliance Industries and Nayara Energy accounting for more than half of the total in-bound shipments. Read more
Serena Huang, Head of APAC Analysis at Vortexa, an energy intelligence firm, said Russia has done well in enticing Indian refiners to increase purchases of its crude as the European Union pivots away. Arrivals of Russian crude into India rose by 260,000 bpd m-o-m in December to reach a record 1.2 million bpd, while January arrivals are on the track to set another records with nearly 1.3 million bpd of Russian crude discharged in first two weeks of this month.
Contrastingly, around 770,000 bpd of seaborne Russian crude oil was discharged to China in December 2022, down nearly 27% with the slight rebound to 890,000 bpd seen in January first half.
Moreover, Indian refiners have also expanded their basket of Russian crude by adding blends such as ESPO, Arctic Oil, Sakhalin, Sokol and Varandey, a senior official with an oil marketing company (OMC) said.
Private refiners such as Reliance Industries and Rosneft-backed Nayara Energy, have been aggressively expanding their contracts of crude from Russia last few months. Their share of India's crude imports from Russia increased from 40% during July-November last year, to 48% in December, rising further to 60% in January 1-5.
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