Venezuela’s share in India’s oil imports was declining before US sanctions

Crude oil imports from Venezuela were shrinking before US sanctions

Venezuela’s share in India’s oil imports was already declining when Covid and US sanctions dealt a blow to its exports to India, according to a Moneycontrol analysis. President Donald Trump's threat to impose 25 percent tariff is expected to deal a further blow to the South American nation.

While the country had a 10.3 percent share in India’s imports in 2013, this declined to 5.6 percent by 2019 and further to 3.6 percent in 2020.

Venezuela again found some ground in the Indian market in 2024, rising to become India’s tenth largest exporter of crude oil with $1.8 billion of exports, the US threat is again expected to halt trade from the country.

The South American nation was once India’s fourth largest exporter of crude.

US President Donald Trump on March 24 threatened tariffs against countries importing crude products from the South American nation.

"Venezuela has been very hostile to the United States and the Freedoms which we espouse," Trump wrote on his social network, threatening a 25 percent tariff.

Data from UNCTAD shows that Venezuela counts China, US, Europe and India as top importers of its crude product.

However, sanctions are unlikely to affect any nation directly even if they move exports away from Venezuela.

Despite being India’s tenth largest exporter Venezuela had just a 1.2 percent share of India’s imports. Its share in the US imports was higher at 3 percent, while for European Union countries like Spain and Italy, the country had a 0.6 percent share in imports.