India’s crude oil imports rose nearly 4.2% to 19.03 million tonnes in March, government data showed from a year earlier, as consumption rose at the world’s third-largest oil importer after easing COVID-19 restrictions Is.
Crude imports for the month were also up 8.2 per cent over February, according to data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell.
India’s fuel demand hit a three-year peak in March, with petrol sales hitting an all-time high as demand picked up and the market outpaced the expected price hike.
“The increase in imports can be attributed to an improvement in demand; With the COVID restrictions being eased, there is a pick-up in the industry and economy with schools, colleges and all openings,” said Prashant Vashisht, Vice President and Co-Head, Corporate Ratings at ICRA.
“Moreover, Indian companies, both from the private and public sector, are not shying away from buying and using the cheap crude available from Russia.”
India has bought more than twice as much oil from Russia since invading Ukraine throughout 2021, at a time when Western sanctions have prompted many oil importers to trade with Moscow.
Imports of oil products grew 9% month-on-month, but declined 9.5% from 2021 to 3.62 million tonnes.
Oil products exports grew 10.9% over a year ago and diesel accounted for 3.37 million tonnes out of the total 6.74 million tonnes exported in March.
India – Asia’s third largest economy – has surplus refining capacity and is a major exporter of refined fuels.
“Many European companies are choosing not to buy Russian crude and refined products. And even before the war, there was a shortage of diesel stock levels in Europe. So, since there is healthy demand, this has led to an increase in product exports. For India,” ICRA’s Vashisht said.
Note: Data for import and export is preliminary as private refiners share numbers at their discretion.
All figures are in millions of tons:
2022 2022 2022 2021 2021 2021
Crude oil March February January March February January
Import 19.03 17.59 19.12 18.26 15.24 19.59
Import:
2022 2022 2022 2021 2021 2021
March February January March February January
LPG 1.45 1.26 1.39 1.36 1.52 1.36
Petrol 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.13 0.08 0.12
Naphtha 0.09 0.09 0.09 0.03 0.10 0.05
Kerosene 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Diesel 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.07
fuel oil 1.05 0.94 0.82 1.11 0.79 0.38
All 3.62 3.32 3.43 4.00 3.36 3.05
Export:
2022 2022 2022 2021 2021 2021
Product March February January March February January
Petrol 1.60 1.22 1.08 1.29 0.88 0.89
Naphtha 0.79 0.44 0.51 0.80 0.55 0.60
Diesel 3.37 2.41 2.58 3.07 2.11 2.32
fuel oil 0.09 0.09 0.17 0.20 0.08 0.11
Jet Fuel 0.62 0.41 0.45 0.41 0.43 0.30
All 6.74 4.86 5.07 6.08 4.15 4.43
notes:
The sum may not match because not all items are included in the table and the numbers are rounded up or down. The numbers for the previous months have been revised.
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