India's crude oil imports rose 3.76 per cent in August to 19.60 million tonnes month-on-month, government data showed on Tuesday. India is the world's third-biggest oil importer and consumer, making this data a key indicator of its oil demand.
On a yearly basis, crude oil imports fell 2.9 per cent from 20.18 million tonnes in August 2024, data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell shows. Imports of crude oil products fell about 1.9 per cent on a yearly basis to 4.12 million tonnes in August, while product exports rose 11.2 per cent to 5.66 million tonnes.
"In July Indian imports suffered from European sanctions on an Indian refinery and the US threat to increase tariffs on India if it would keep buying Russian barrels," said UBS commodity analyst Giovanni Staunovo. "There was an adjustment and normalization of flows in August, and hence the recovery."
India's crude oil imports fell 8.7 per cent in July to 18.56 million tonnes month-on-month, their lowest since February 2024.
India's Russian oil imports fell 4.1 per cent in August from a year earlier to about 1.62 million barrels per day (bpd), making up about a third of overall imports, tanker data from sources showed.
India has been caught in the crossfire of talks between Russia and the United States to end the war in Ukraine.
It will continue to buy Russian oil as it proves economical, the finance minister said, despite the United States' decision to impose heavy import tariffs on Indian goods due, in part, to its energy purchases from Moscow.
India's Nayara Energy imported only Russian oil in August, with Iraq's SOMO and Saudi Aramco halting supplies because of payment difficulties after the European Union placed sanctions on the Russia-backed refiner in July, data from trade and industry sources showed.
(Reporting by Ishaan Arora and Anushree Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)