After hitting a 12-month low in October, India’s crude oil imports in November recovered as most of the country’s refineries were back operating at optimum capacity following the maintenance shutdown season, and demand for fuels and other petroleum products also picked up.
Consequently, import volumes from the top five source markets — Russia, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the United States (US) — grew sequentially, according to ship tracking data. Within this group, the UAE and the US registered the highest growth in percentage terms.
India’s oil imports had declined to a yearly low in October amid maintenance-related shutdowns at some refineries and the geopolitical crisis in West Asia, which had fanned fires of volatility in international oil prices. The oil prices have trended lower since and are relatively stable as well, which evidently contributed to higher imports.
In November, Indian refiners cumulatively imported 4.69 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude, up 6.6 per cent month-on-month, according to provisional vessel tracking data from international commodity market analytics firm Kpler. Read more
Source: Indian Express