Indian Oil exec expects Russia to make up 30% of company's imports this year

🇷🇺🇮🇳 Indian Oil exec expects Russia to make up 30% of company's imports this year

Russia could account for nearly a third of state-owned Indian Oil's crude imports in the current financial year, an executive at the company said on Saturday.

"The share of Russian crude oil imports, which was less than 2% in '21/22 has increased 10 times, to around 20% in India’s buy of crude oil imports," Vinod Kumar told a panel at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.

"In Indian Oil's case the jump in Russian imports is more profound: from 0.1% in 21/22 to 21.5% in 22/23. And I'm expecting that for the current year, that is 23/24, the numbers will be available at 30%."

Russia's crude oil imports by India, the world's No. 3 crude oil importer, hit an all-time high in May, reducing demand for oil from the Middle East and Africa, according to preliminary estimates by ship trackers.

Russia is actively diverting its energy supplies from Western countries, which imposed restrictions and sanctions on trade with Moscow last year. China and India purchase most of the re-routed Russian energy.