New Delhi: India’s increased intake of African oil helped partly offset the 18% month-on-month import decline from its top supplier Russia in December, according to energy cargo tracker Vortexa.
Russia’s share in India’s imported crude market shrank to 30% in December from 34.5% in November. Africa’s share increased to 7.6% from 4.7%. The shares of Iraq (22.3%) and Saudi Arabia (16.4%), the second and third-largest suppliers respectively, expanded about one percentage point each. The UAE’s share fell to 4.5% from 6.6%. Kuwait inched ahead of the US as the fifth largest supplier to India with a 4% share in December, up from 3.4% in November. The share of the US fell to 3.6% in December from 4% in the previous month.
