Indian crude imports from Russia exceed 1mn b/d

India's crude imports from Russia have topped 1mn b/d so far this month as the country's refiners take advantage of cut-price cargoes being shunned by Moscow's traditional customers in the west.

India took delivery of 1.06mn b/d of crude from Russia on 1-9 June, of which 776,000 b/d was shipped from Baltic Sea ports and 279,000 b/d from the Black Sea, according to preliminary data from Vortexa. India only imported around 50,000 b/d from Russia last year, before the invasion of Ukraine triggered a wave of international sanctions and customer-driven embargoes on Russian oil.

Urals made up 79pc of India's June imports from Russian ports, Siberian Light accounted for 9pc and the rest was CPC Blend, which is a mix of Kazakh and Russian grades. Almost 30pc was delivered to Paradip on India's east coast, 23pc went to Vadinar - where Russian-owned Nayara Energy operates a 400,000 b/d refinery - and around 12pc was unloaded at Sikka - where Reliance Industries operates the 1.24mn b/d Jamnagar refinery complex.

The daily rate of crude imports from Russia to India this month has outpaced the May average by 22pc, although this masks what appears to be a cooling off in India's appetite for Russia oil in recent weeks. Of the 2.27mn b/d of Urals that set sail from Baltic and Black Sea ports in May, around 27pc was destined for India, compared with 43pc of April's 2.19mn b/d of exports, according to Vortexa.

Journey times from the Baltics to India can be as long as around 40 days, depending on the type of vessel used and where in India the cargo is being delivered. This means much of the volume delivered to India this month is likely to have left Russia in April or early May.

By Pratima Pareek