India’s crude oil imports from the U.S. have jumped by over 72% in the first five months of the current fiscal as the country looks to diversify oil purchases beyond its traditional suppliers in West Asia, official data showed.
According to data sourced from the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics, the U.S. supplied about 4.5 million tonnes of crude oil in April to August 2019, as compared to 2.6 million tonnes oil sourced from that country in the same period a year ago.
Iraq continues to be India’s top crude oil supplier, meeting close to one-fourth of the country’s oil needs. Iraq sold 21.24 million tonnes of crude oil to India during April to August, almost 12% more than 18.99 million tonnes it had supplied in the same period of the previous fiscal.
India provisionally imported 91.24 million tonnes of crude oil in April-August 2019, down from 93.91 million tonnes a year ago.
Saudi Arabia has traditionally been India’s top oil source, but it was for the first time dethroned by Iraq in the 2017-18 fiscal year. Saudi Arabia, which has since then been relegated to the second spot, exported 17.74 million tonnes of crude oil, up from 15.66 million tonnes in the previous year.
Nigeria ranks third
India stopped importing crude oil from Iran following the reimposition of economic sanctions in May by the U.S., pushing down imports from the Persian Gulf nation to just 2 million tonnes from 13.3 million tonnes in the previous year, data showed.
Nigeria grabbed the third spot vacated by Iran. The African nation supplied 7.17 million tonnes of crude oil in April-August, up from 5.81 million tonnes a year ago.
