The United States overtook the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to become India’s fourth-largest crude oil supplier in April, after the Asian country boosted purchases from America to position itself for a better trade deal.
India’s imports of crude oil from the United States jumped to 330,000 barrels per day (bpd) in April, up from 240,000 bpd in March and double compared to April 2024, according to data compiled by energy cargo tracking firm Vortexa cited by The Times of India.
The share of U.S. oil in India’s overall imports rose to 7.3%, overtaking the UAE’s share of 6.4% last month.
Thus, the U.S. became India’s fourth-biggest crude supplier, after Russia, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.
India was ramping up in April purchases and imports of crude oil from the United States ahead of crucial talks on the U.S. tariffs this month.
India’s state-owned refining giants are leading the higher purchases of U.S. crude, as India hopes to have tariffs lowered if it buys more American energy products.
State Indian refiners, including Indian Oil Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), bought at tenders in April at least 6 million barrels of crude from the U.S. due to arrive in India in June, Bloomberg calculations showed.
Meanwhile, OPEC’s market share in India slumped to an all-time low of below 50% of India’s crude oil imports in the 2024-2025 fiscal year, as Russian oil flows to the world’s third-largest crude importer continued to rise and dent the share of the Middle Eastern producers.
India’s imports of crude from Russia increased by 7.3% to an average of 1.76 million bpd in the 2024-2025 fiscal year ending March 31, 2025. This gave Russia, now India’s single largest crude supplier, a 36% share of the market of an average of 4.88 million bpd of total imports.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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