India's "thirst" for Russian oil cools down

According to data firm Kpler, in August 2023, India - the world's third largest oil consumer - reduced its oil imports from Russia to 1.57 million barrels per day, down 24% from the previous month.

India sharply reduces oil imports from Russia. (Source: getty Images)

Thus, August is the third consecutive month that New Delhi has reduced its imports of Russian oil and is the month in which India has imported the least amount of Russian oil since the beginning of this year.

Indian refiners also cut imports from Iraq by 10% to 848,000 barrels a day. Some of that volume was replaced by a sharp increase in imports from Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia’s oil shipments to India rose 63% in August from the previous month to 852,000 barrels a day.

India's consumption of Russian crude has soared since last year, hitting a peak of 2.15 million barrels per day in May 2023, as refiners scrambled to snap up deeply discounted cargoes.

However, the Mangalore refinery and petrochemical plant in the southwestern Indian state of Karnataka, with a capacity of 301,000 barrels per day, has cut imports by two-thirds.

Purchases by Mumbai-based Reliance Industries Ltd. have fallen to 1.1 million barrels per day (bpd), down from a normal average of 1.2 million to 1.3 million bpd, as the company plans to shut down a crude distillation unit in September, said Viktor Katona, senior crude oil analyst at Kpler.

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