Crude oil imports fall for third consecutive month

Crude oil imports fall for third consecutive month

India’s crude oil imports fell for the third consecutive month in August to 18.73 million tonne (MT) due to maintenance activities at Indian refineries and decline in shipments from Russia.

Crude oil imports were 20.58 MT in May, 19.56 MT in June and 19.51 MT in July, as per data released by the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC). The sequential decline in August was 4%.

India’s import from Russia, too, fell for third consecutive month in August to a seven-month low. It imported 1.46 million barrels a day from Russia in August, down from 1.91 million barrels purchased in July.

Year-on-year, the crude oil imports were higher by 6.2% in August and 0.6% lower during April-August period. Indigenous crude oil and condensate production during August was 2.49 MT, 2.1% higher than in August 2022.

Imports of petroleum, oil and lubricants (POL) increased by 26.6% and 7.3% during August 2023 and April-August 2023 respectively as compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.

“The rise in imports of POL products from April to August 2023 was primarily driven by increased imports of bitumen, petcoke and naphtha,” said the monthly report on production and trade of crude oil and POL.

Exports of POL products rose 11.2% and fell 2.6% during August 2023 and April-August 2023, respectively. The decline in exports from April to August is attributed primarily to reduced exports of high-speed diesel (HSD) and naphtha.

Total crude oil processed during August 2023 was 21.9 MT, which is 12.2% higher than in August 2022. State-run refineries and their joint ventures processed 14.7 MT and private refiners processed 7.2 MT of crude oil.

There was a growth of 2.6% in total crude oil processed in April-August FY24 as compared to same period of FY23. The total indigenous crude oil processed was 2.1 MT last month.