Oil imports fell 11% in Dec as supplies from Russia, Saudi fall

Lower supplies from Russia and traditional West Asian suppliers such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait dragged down India's crude oil imports by 10.6 per cent in December 2024 to $10.34 billion from $11.57 billion in December 2023, according to official data.

- SUBHAYAN CHAKRABORTY

Data released by the commerce department shows that imports were down 16.5 per cent sequentially from $12.4 billion of crude imported in November. The data is usually released with a lag of three months.

Importantly, imports from Russia fell for the first time in four months in December 2024. This indicates crude supplies from Russia had begun to see a decline in value even before the latest spate of sanctions at Moscow was slapped by the United States in January.