India has become the world’s biggest market for Russian Urals crude oil and will likely be importing even greater quantities following the opening of a new, shorter route from St Petersburg to Nhava Sheva port on Tuesday. The route slashes the transportation time to just over three weeks from more than 10 weeks via the Suez Canal.
India imported 840,645 barrels per day (bpd) of Russian crude oil in May and that’s seen climbing to 1 million bpd this month.
Contrast that number to the 388,666 bpd India imported from Russia in April and the 136,774 bpd it bought from Russia in May 2021. Back in 2020, Russian Urals crude exports were just 16,000 bpd.
