India Surpasses China As Largest Importer Of Russian Oil

Authored by Alex Kimani via OilPrice.com,

India has become the world's biggest importer of Russian oil, surpassing China, Reuters has reported. Data on Indian shipments from trade and industry showed that the country imported 2.07 million barrels per day (bpd) of Russian crude in July, good for a 4.2% M/M and 12% Y/Y increase. According to Chinese customs data, India's July crude oil imports exceeded China's 1.76 million bpd via pipelines and shipments.

Indian refiners have been buying Russian crude at a discount to Brent ever since Western nations curtailed imports of Russian energy commodities following its invasion of Ukraine. India's purchase of Russian ESPO Blend crude jumped in July to 188,000 bpd as larger Suezmax vessels were used.

Refiners in northeast China are typically the biggest ESPO buyers thanks to their close proximity to Russia; however, they are now buying less due to tepid fuel demand.

"India's requirement for Russian oil is going to go up as long as there are no further tightening of sanctions," an Indian refining source told Reuters.

India is also looking to develop its own oil fields in the coming years. Four largely unexplored sedimentary basins in India could hold up to 22 billion barrels of oil, S&P Global Commodity Insights has reported.

In effect, lesser-known Category II and III basins, namely Mahanadi, Andaman Sea, Bengal, and Kerala-Konkan, contain more oil than the Permian Basin, which has already produced 14 billion of its 34 billion barrels of recoverable oil reserves. 

Rahul Chauhan, an upstream analyst at Commodity Insights, has emphasized the potential of India's unexplored Oil & Gas sector, "ONGC and Oil India hold acreages in the Andaman waters under the Open Acreage Licensing Program (OALP) and have planned a few significant projects. However, India still awaits the entry of an international oil company with deepwater and ultra-deepwater exploration expertise to participate in current and upcoming OALP bidding rounds and explore these frontier regions," he has declared.

Currently, only 10% of India's 3.36 million sq km wide sedimentary basin is under exploration. However, Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri says that the figure will jump to 16% in 2024 following the award of blocks under the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) rounds.

So far, OALP has resulted in the award of 144 blocks covering about 244,007 sq km.