The amount of oil exported from Russia to India increased sharply

In March, oil exports from Russia to India nearly quadrupled compared to 2021 – to 360,000 bpd.

Mr. Alex Booth, expert at commodity research organization Kpler, said that India usually buys mixed Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) crude oil from Kazakhstan and Russia. However, the amount of oil purchased in March was mainly Urals crude. He said that this oil was originally from shipments intended to be exported to Europe.

“Russian oil shipments that failed to find buyers in Europe are being bought by India” said Mr. Booth.

Imports account for 85% of oil demand in India. Therefore, the increase in oil prices will put pressure on the country’s coffers. According to analyst Vivekanand Subbaraman at Ambit Capital, it is likely that all three of India’s state-owned refineries will buy oil from Russia because the country’s fuel source depends on imports.

This week, Indian Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri affirmed that fuel prices in India will not rise as high as in Europe and the US, only 5% increase. He added, India will act in the interest of consumers.

In the trading session on March 18, the world crude oil price simultaneously returned to over 100 USD/barrel. Specifically, the price of Brent oil (international standard) increased to 108 USD/barrel, US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil reached 105 USD and OPEC oil reached 104 USD.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts that the world will be short of millions of barrels of oil a day due to the loss of supply from Russia. This higher-than-expected loss of supply pushed oil prices back up.