India’s imports of Russian oil grew 14 times in fiscal year 2022/23 – Kommersant

The Reserve Bank of India said that in fiscal year 2022/23 (ended March 31), oil imports from Russia increased 14 times compared to the previous year – from $2.2 billion to $31.02 billion in value terms, follows from the annual report of the Indian regulator.

The share of Russian supplies in the import of hydrocarbons to India increased during the reporting period from 2% to 19.1%, the report says. The Reserve Bank noted that Russia has become the largest supplier of oil to India, ahead of Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. According to the regulator, over the past financial year, the Russian Federation supplied 50.84 million tons of oil to India.

At the same time, due to the price cap imposed by Western countries at $60 per barrel in value terms, Russian oil imports to India yielded to imports from Iraq, which supplied the country with 50.31 million tons of fuel worth $33.37 billion. India also included Saudi Arabia (39.37 million tons), the United Arab Emirates (21.5 million tons) and the United States (15.16 million tons).

Against the backdrop of the refusal of European countries from Russian oil, India and China began to buy most of it. Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak saidthat Russia in 2023 will redirect to Asia 140 million tons of exports of oil and oil products, which previously accounted for Europe. In April, oil imports from Russia to India has reached record value.

As Kommersant wrote, due to the fact that the main flows of Russian oil are now redirected to Asia, the largest Russian oil company Rosneft is proposing to the government to tie the calculation of oil taxes to Dubai, and not Brent, as it is now.

Read more about this in the article. “Dubai is like oil”.

Erdni Kagaltynov