Russia’s low cost crude sends OPEC’s market share in India to a document low

• India’s imports of crude oil from OPEC dropped to an all-time low of 46% in April, down from 72% a 12 months in the past.
• Russia accounts for 36% of India’s oil imports, versus lower than 1% earlier than Moscow launched its conflict on Ukraine.

The Group of the Petroleum Exporting International locations has seen its market share in India shrink to a document low amid a flood of low cost Russian oil imports.

The cartel’s share dropped to 46% in April, down from 72% a 12 months earlier, based on Vortexa information cited by the Financial Occasions.

Russia is companions with the oil cartel beneath the OPEC+ coalition, however India has been making the most of low cost barrels since Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine.

Russia now accounts for 36% of the nation’s imported provides, or about 1.67 million barrels per day. Earlier than the conflict began, that stood at lower than 1%.

In the meantime, OPEC equipped 2.1 million barrels per day to India final month out of the overall 4.6 million barrels per day the nation took in, per Vortexa.

Whole Russian imports have now surpassed the mixed purchases from Iraq and Saudi Arabia, which have been India’s greatest suppliers during the last decade.

The info present, too, that whereas India’s month-on-month purchases set a brand new document excessive once more in April, the speed of improve slowed, which may counsel it is peaking quickly.

Western sanctions on Russian vitality — equivalent to bans on coal in August 2022, crude oil in December 2022, and refined oil merchandise in February 2023 — have pressured the Kremlin during the last 12 months to hunt out different markets for his or her vitality provides in Asia.

European Central Financial institution calculations present that commerce quantity between the euro space and Russia halved since February final 12 months.

But in April, Russia’s oil exports returned to pre-war ranges, as China and India now account for about 90% of its shipments, Kpler information reveals.

Nonetheless, Russia is making much less cash from its vitality exports in comparison with earlier than its invasion, as sanctions weigh on costs. The Worldwide Financial Fund stated in April that Moscow’s revenues stay roughly 43% decrease than the identical time final 12 months.