U.S. And Canada In India`S Oil Imports Rises To Record High

Asia’s third-largest economy shipped around 4.8 million barrels per day (BPD) oil in January, dropping 6% from the prior month and marginally higher than a year beforehand.

India’s imports from Canada and the United States nearly duplicated from December to 142,000 BPD and 367,000 BPD, individually. The United States developed as the fourth-biggest supplier to India after the United Arab Emirates.

Ehsan Ul-Haq is the lead analyst for Oil Research and Forecasts at Refinitiv. He stated that India’s gasoline demand improved quicker than other products. North American grades are gasoline, replying that most Middle Eastern grades were distillate-rich.

Mr. Ul-Haq said that crude from America was cheap in relation to other producing regions in November while Canadian oil is sold at a lower discount to Brent.

The share of Middle Eastern oil in India’s oil imports fell to an eight-month low

India is the world’s third-biggest oil importer and consumer. It ships in higher than 80% of its crude needs and relies massively on the Middle East.

Its dependence on the Middle East is failing however, as refiners diversify crude sources to hedge versus disruption. They buy more affordable barrels from abroad to increase margins.

The share of Middle Eastern oil in India’s oil imports last month fell to an eight-month low of about 61% on low supplies from Iraq and Saudi Arabia, while Latin America weakened to a six-month low of around 6.4%.

Iraq has cut yearly oil supply deals for Indian refiners for 2021. Saudi supplies throughout the month decreased by 20% from December.

Notwithstanding lower imports, Iraq was the top oil seller to India last month, Saudi Arabia being second.

Low supplies from the Middle East and South America drew OPEC nations’ share in India’s overall oil imports to a record low in April-January.