India imported 2.08 million barrels per day (bpd) of Russian crude in June, the highest since July 2024, said Kpler, global commodity market analytics firm
Thursday, August 14, 2025
India continues to remain a top importer of Russia's crude oil, especially as refiners topped up tanks amid the Israel-Iran war, quoted vessel tracking data from global commodity market analytics firm, Kpler.
In June, India imported 2.08 million barrels per day (bpd) of Russian crude - the highest since July, 2024 - signaling an 11-month high, the data revealed.
"While India's global imports of crude oil dropped by 6 per cent in June, Russian volumes saw an 8 per cent month-on-month rise to their highest levels since July 2024," said European think tank, Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
India imports more than 85 per cent of its requirement of crude oil, which is then refined into fuels like petrol and diesel. Russia remains its largest source of crude oil, accounting for almost 40 per cent of the country's oil imports.
After Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February, 2022, followed by West-placed sanctions on the country, Russia started offering steep discounts to its trade partners, including India.
India seized the opportunity and turned from the Middle East as its main source of crude oil to Russia, which has been its mainstay supplier for three years now.
In June, India imported approximately 8,93,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude from Iraq - its second-largest supplier - marking a 17.2 per cent month-on-month decline.
Saudi Arabia followed with 5,81,000 bpd (largely unchanged from May), while imports from the UAE rose 6.5 per cent to 4,90,000 bpd.
Iraq accounted for 18.5 per cent of India's oil imports. The US remained India's fifth-largest crude supplier, with import volumes of approximately 3,03,000 bpd and a 6.3 per cent market share, according to Kpler.
Russia's other major oil purchasers include China, which bought 47 per cent of Russia's crude exports in June, as per CREA; the EU (6 per cent), and Turkiye (6 per cent).
"In June, India remained the second-largest purchaser of Russian fossil fuels, importing fossil fuels worth 4.5 billion euro. Crude oil accounted for 80 per cent (3.6 billion euro) of these imports," it said.
However, India is also consciously shifting its attention to non-OPEC crudes as New Delhi looks to widen its source of supplies.
S&P Global Commodity data showed India's crude oil inflows from the US surged more than 50 per cent in the first half of 2025 compared to H1 2024, with India importing 2,71,000 bpd of crude oil from the US in this time period. This is higher than the 1,80,000 bpd imported in the same period in 2024.
Crude inflows from Brazil posted the sharpest growth in the six-month period, rising about 80 per cent year-over-year to 73,000 bpd from nearly 41,000 bpd.
But, despite the increase in India's imports of crude oil from the US, volumes of US crude have slowed down over the past two to three years since India turned to Russian crude.
Russia retained the position as India's top crude supplier in January-June, with shipments of 1.67 million bpd, up marginally from 1.66 million bpd in the same period a year earlier.
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