India's Russian oil buy is now more than Saudi, UAE, Iraq and US combined

India currently imports more cheap Russian oil than it does from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States combined. According to data from energy cargo tracker Vortexa, India imported 1.96 million barrels per day from Russia in May, 15% more than the previous peak in April. Currently, imports from Russia exceed total purchases from Saudi Arabia and Iraq combined. The US, the UAE, and India have been the three main providers in the past ten years.

In May, Iraq delivered 0.83 million barrels of oil per day (bpd), while the UAE sent 203,000 bpd. The data showed that up to 138,000 bpd was imported from the US. Nearly 42% of the crude oil that India imported in May is currently supplied by Russia. The percentage is the greatest for a single nation in recent years. Russian market share increased at the expense of dependable Middle Eastern suppliers. According to data from the shipping analytics business, shipments from Saudi Arabia decreased to 560,000 tonnes, the lowest level since February 2021.

In May, the proportion of the oil-producing cartel OPEC in India's oil imports reached a record low of 39%. Up to 90% of the crude oil that India imported at one point came from Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), primarily in the Middle East and Africa, but this percentage has been declining ever since Russian oil became more affordable following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February of last year.

Russia's market share in India's imports increased to 1.96 million barrels per day in May, seizing 42% of the market from less than 1% before the commencement of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in February 2022. Out of the 4.7 million bpd of oil India imported in May, 1.8 million bpd came from OPEC. Vortexa, this was a decrease from the 2.1 million bpd imported in April.

Indian refiners previously avoided purchasing Russian oil, but now that several Western countries have rejected it in response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, they are snatching up the copious supply that is available at a discount to other grades. May's purchases from Russia more than doubled the 0.83 million bpd of oil that India had been getting from Iraq since 2017–18. Saudi Arabia has dropped to No. 3 on the list.

Almost 2 million bpd of Russian crude was imported by India in May, testing new records. Russian oil has been tested by refiners, who are now more confident in handling it and their ravenous appetite. Serena Huang, the director of Asia-Pacific analysis at Vortexa, predicted that the price of Russian crude would rise as much as they had room to cut back on spot crude purchases. In April, the average price of Russian oil, including freight charges, that arrived on Indian shores was USD 68.21 per barrel, the lowest price since the Ukraine War. In April, the average price of Saudi Arabian crude shipped to India was USD 86.96 per barrel, while the price of Iraqi oil was USD 77.77 per barrel. The import cost for May has not yet been disclosed.

In order to fill the vacuum in its energy exports after the European Union prohibited imports in December, Russia is selling record amounts of crude oil to India. Other nations are not permitted to use EU shipping and insurance services unless oil is sold below the cap, which was set by the EU in December along with a ban on Russian seaborne oil and a USD 60 per barrel pricing cap. Industry insiders claimed that Indian refineries are using the dirham from the United Arab Emirates to pay for imported oil that is less expensive than USD 60. Only 68,600 bpd of oil was purchased by India from Russia in March 2022, according to Vortexa.