Preliminary ship-tracking data from Kpler and Vortexa revealed that record-high imports of crude oil from Russia in fiscal 2022–23 helped India's refiners increase shipments of diesel and jet fuel to Europe while the continent rejected Russian goods. The availability of inexpensive Russian crude has increased production and earnings at Indian refineries, allowing them to export refined goods to Europe at a competitive price and capture a larger market share.
Before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Europe regularly bought 154,000 barrels per day (bpd) or more of diesel and jet fuel from India. After the European Union forbade the import of Russian oil products beginning on February 5, Kpler statistics showed that it jumped to 200,000 bpd. The report indicated that India's imports of Russian oil increased in March for the seventh consecutive month to complete the fiscal year as the top supplier to India, overtaking Iraq for the first time.
Indian refiners, which rarely bought Russian oil previously due to high transport costs, imported 970,000-981,000 bpd of it in 2022/23, accounting for more than a fifth of overall imports at 4.5-4.6 million bpd, Kpler and Vortexa data showed. Imports from Iraq slipped to 936,000-961,000 bpd from nearly 1 million bpd in 2021/22, the data showed.
While Russia's flagship grade Urals makes up the bulk of India's purchases, refiners are also importing lighter grades from Russia's Far East and Arctic grades such as Sokol, Arco, Novy Port and ESPO blend. Russia's largest oil producer Rosneft and top Indian refiner Indian Oil Corp have signed a term deal to substantially increase and diversify oil grades delivered to India.
OIL PRODUCTS: As Europe's ban kept Russian products out, India's diesel exports to the continent rose 12-16% to 150,000-167,000 bpd in the last fiscal year, the Kpler and Vortexa data showed. That accounted for about 30% of India's total gasoil exports, up from 21-24% a year earlier, the data showed. The key European buyers of Indian diesel are France, Turkey, Belgium and the Netherlands, the Kpler data showed. The data, Europe received nearly 50% of India's jet fuel exports, or 70,000–75,00 bpd in 2022–2023—an increase of 40,000–42,000 bpd from the previous year. India has increased its supplies of vacuum gas oil (VGO) to the United States in addition to its exports to Europe.
The statistics showed that in 2022–2023, the U.S. imported 11,000–12,000 bpd of VGO, or 65-81% of India's total exports of the refining feedstock that can be further processed to yield fuels like gasoline and diesel. Just 500 bpd or so of VGO were shipped from India to the United States in 2021/22. However, as some refiners shut down units for maintenance in the latter half of 2022, India's overall yearly refined fuel exports in 2022/23 were lower than they had been the previous year.
