Oil is well! India’s refined fuel exports to Europe soar, hit an all-time high in Nov

The increased exports to Europe come amid approaching winter season and refinery shutdowns in the region.

India has been steadily ramping up exports of refined fuel to Europe ever since the war broke out between Russia and Ukraine in 2022. With the euro zone ending purchases of Russian oil as part of the sanctions imposed on it, India has emerged as one of the top exporters of refined products to the bloc in recent months. India’s fuel exports to Europe ex-Russia witnessed a sharp increase of around 75 percent in 2024 till October compared with 2022 levels.

Refined fuel exports to Europe hit an all-time high of approximately 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) in November, data from commodity market analytics firm Kpler showed. Exports for November would be revised towards the end of the month and were last updated on November 8.

“Saudi Arabia is one of the major exporters of refined products to Europe. However, Saudi's 670 kbd Yanbu refinery will undergo planned maintenance at its 430 kbd CDU in November and December. As a result, diesel exports from India are expected to remain robust during this period,” said Sumit Ritolia, senior oil refining analyst at Kpler.

In the oil refining segment, kbd stands for thousand barrels per day, and CDU is crude distillation unit.

The increased exports to Europe come ahead of the winter season and refinery shutdowns in the region. India’s refined fuel products exports were already 59 percent higher in October to 335,000 bpd over the 210,000 bpd shipped in September.

“Exports of refined oil products from India surged in October and November, driven by refinery shutdowns in Europe, which increased import demand. Since September, European refiners have reduced processing rates (run cuts) due to seasonal maintenance and weak refinery margins, limiting local supply. Additionally, as Europe heads into the winter season, the need for winter-spec diesel has grown. India's Reliance Jamnagar refinery, known for its capability to produce such fuels, has played a key role, with a significant portion of European imports from India coming from this facility,” said Ritolia.

“As a result, refined fuel shipments (including diesel, petrol/gasoline, jet fuel and fuel oil or furnace fuel) from India to Europe, excluding Turkey, rose to 335 kbd in October, a 59 percent increase from the previous month. November exports are projected to climb even further, reaching approximately 440 kbd,” he added.

In the first 10 months of 2024-25, India’s fuel exports to Europe stood at 2551 kbd, against 2,672 kpd in the same period last year and 1,459 kbd in 2022.

India primarily exports diesel and jet fuel to Europe. In October, India exported 238,000 bpd of diesel and 81,000 bpd of aviation turbine fuel to Europe, while September saw exports of 79,000 bpd of diesel and 131,000 bpd of jet fuel.

India was the third largest exporter of refined fuel to Europe in October, following the US and Saudi Arabia. The US supplied 577,000 bpd of refined fuel while Saudi Arabia exported 366,000 bpd to Europe in the month.

Indian refineries are processing crude oil from Russia available at discounted price and supplying refined products to Europe. The share of Russian oil in India’s total crude oil imports has increased to around 40 percent currently from 0.2 percent in 2022, before the beginning of Russia-Ukraine war.