India's crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia drop 34% in July

India’s import of Saudi crude falls 34% in July post production cuts

India’s imports of crude oil from Saudi Arabia declined 34 percent in July, according to energy cargo tracker Vortexa.

Saudi Arabia supplied 484,000 barrels of crude oil per day in July compared to 734,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the previous month.

The decline in imports from Saudi comes after the country announced additional supply cuts of 1 million bpd in July.

Earlier in May, Saudi Arabia had reduced supply by 500,000 bpd, while Iraq had cut over 200,000 bpd until the end of the year. Russia had announced an extension of its production cut of 50,000 bpd from May until the end of 2023. In total, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, commonly known as OPEC+, had in May announced oil production cuts of 1.6 million bpd for 2023.

Meanwhile, Russia remained the top supplier of crude oil for India in July. Moscow’s crude oil supply to India exceeded the combined shipments of oil from Saudi Arabia and Iraq—the traditional suppliers of India.

India imported 1.9 million bpd of crude from Russia, while Iraq supplied 891,000 bpd in July.

Russian Urals—the sour grade of crude—continues to constitute the majority of imports from Moscow. In July, India imported 1.6 million bpd of Russian Urals.

Russia has become a major source of crude oil for India ever since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, and has overtaken Saudi Arabia and Iraq to become India’s top crude supplier. India has been importing the maximum crude oil from Russia since October 2022.

Moscow has been diverting its oil to Asian countries, especially India and China, at discounted rates ever since the European Union (EU) and the US imposed a slew of sanctions on Moscow after the invasion of Ukraine. India has increased its share of Russian crude procured at discounted prices.

India imported a total of 4.57 million barrels of crude oil per day in June from Russia, Saudi, Iraq, the US, UAE, and some other countries.