India's Russian oil imports surge

India’s imports of Russian crude oil surged to a 10-month high of 1.96 million barrels per day in May, driven by continued availability at significant discounts compared to global benchmark prices, according to ship-tracking data from Kpler.

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India, the world’s third largest oil importing and consuming nation, bought from abroad around 5.1 million barrels of crude oil. Whereas, Russia was the largest supplier, accounting for over 38 per cent of the supplies.

India, which has traditionally sourced its oil from the Middle East, began importing a large volume of oil from Russia soon after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. This is primarily because Russian oil was available at a significant discount to other international benchmarks due to Western sanctions and some European countries shunning purchases.