India's crude oil imports in January rise to highest in eight months

In January, consumption was up 3.2% year-on-year at 20.49 million metric tons but dipped on a monthly basis, oil ministry data showed earlier this month.

India's crude oil imports rose 3.2% month-on-month to 20.85 million metric tons in January, the highest since May 2024, government data showed on Monday.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

India is the world's third-biggest oil importer and consumer and the data is a proxy for the country's oil demand.

BY THE NUMBERS

On a yearly basis, crude oil imports were down 3.1% from 21.52 million metric tons in January 2024, data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) showed. Imports of crude oil products gained 13.8% on a yearly basis to 4.36 million tons in January, while product exports rose 13% to 5.47 million tons.

In January, consumption was up 3.2% year-on-year at 20.49 million metric tons but dipped on a monthly basis, oil ministry data showed earlier this month.

India's Reliance Industries raised its January oil imports from Russia by about 10% to 359,000 barrels per day (bpd) as its long-term deal with Russian oil major Rosneft started, data from industry and trade sources showed last week.

India's oil imports from the United States rose sharply in January from December, turning Washington as the fifth-largest oil supplier to New Delhi, data obtained from trade sources show.

Tightened U.S. sanctions on Moscow have disrupted the trade in discounted Russian oil to China and India.

"The crude import increase was driven by the desire to build some inventories considering the uncertainty on the impact of the latest U.S. sanction on Russian crude, as domestic demand and product exports were moderately lower in January versus December," UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said.