US remained the outlier in January with crude imports rising

Imports from Russia fell by nearly a fifth despite remaining largest source of crude

- SUBHAYAN CHAKRABORTY

The US was the only major source nation from which crude flows rose in January, with imports rising 3.4x by value and 4x by volume, official data shows. Data released by the commerce department shows the rise in US oil coincided with lower volumes coming in from Russia and traditional West Asian suppliers such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. This pulled down overall crude oil imports by 16.3 per cent on a year-on-year (Y-o-Y) basis. The data is usually released with a lag of three months.

Crude imports from Russia fell for the second month in a row in January, when former US President Joe Biden's last set of sanctions were announced against Moscow.

Even as it remained the largest source of oil for India, contributing 35 per cent of all imports, Russia sent less crude to India.