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India’s Crude Oil Imports on the Rise During 2024

India is again the fourth largest seaborne importer of crude oil, after China, the EU and ASEAN. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Banchero Costa said that “2023 has been another positive period for crude oil trade, despite the high oil prices and risks of economic recession. In Jan-Dec 2023, global crude oil loadings went up +4.7% y-o-y to 2186.8 mln tonnes, excluding all cabotage trade, according to vessels tracking data from Refinitiv. The positive trend continued in JanSep 2024, when global loadings increased by +0.9% y-o-y to 1652.3 mln t, from 1637.8 mln t in the same period of 2023. Exports from the Arabian Gulf were down by -0.7% y-o-y to 650.8 mln t in Jan-Sep 2024, and accounted for 39.4% of global seaborne trade. Exports from Russian ports (including Kazakh crude) increased by +1.3% yo-y to 175.9 mln tonnes, or 10.6% of global trade. From the USA, exports increased by +3.6% y-o-y to 151.3, or 9.2% of total trade. From South America, exports surged by +15.2% y-o-y to 149.8 mln t.

Source: Banchero Costa

According to the shipbroker, “in terms of demand, the top seaborne importer of crude oil in Jan-Sep 2024 was Mainland China, accounting for 23.1% of global trade. Volumes into China declined by -0.6% y-o-y to 382.7 mln t in Jan-Sep 2024, from 385.0 mln t in Jan-Sep 2023. To the EU, imports increased by +1.5% y-o-y to 359.3 mln t. To ASEAN, imports were up by +6.4% y-o-y to 195.9 mln t in Jan-Sep 2024. To S. Korea, imports increased by +1.6% y-o-y to 106.0 mln t.”

Banchero Costa said that “India is now again the world’s fourth largest seaborne importer of crude oil, after China, the EU, and ASEAN. India accounted for 10.7% of global seaborne crude oil trade in Jan-Sep 2024. Seaborne imports to India increased by +1.8% y-o-y to 228.0 mln t in JanDec 2023, from 223.9 mln t in 2022. In the first 9 months of 2024, volumes into India increased by +3.0% y-o-y to 176.9 mln t, from 171.7 mln in Jan-Sep 2023. About 44 percent of crude oil volumes discharged in India in JanSep 2024 were carried in VLCCs, about 32 percent were carried in Suezmaxes, and about 24 percent in Aframaxes. Top crude discharge ports in India in Jan-Sep 2024 were Jamnagar (50.5 mln tonnes of crude oil in Jan-Sep 2024), Vadinar (37.2 mln t), Paradip (23.1 mln t), Mundra (14.1 mln t), Mumbai (12.9 mln t), Cochin (12.7 mln t), Visakhapatnam (9.5 mln t), Chennai (7.0 mln t), New Mangalore (5.2 mln t), Mangalore (4.0 mln t). In terms of sources of the shipments, there has been understandably a bit of politically driven reshuffling”.

Source: Banchero Costa

“Seaborne imports from Russian ports (which includes both oil of Russian origin and oil of non-Russian origin such as Kazakh oil), surged by +126.6% y-o-y in Jan-Dec 2023 to 75.4 mln tonnes, from 33.3 mln tonnes in 2022, and are twenty times the 4.1 mln t of 2021. Russian ports have now moved up to be the second largest source of seaborne oil to India, accounting for 33.1% of volumes in Jan-Dec 2023, behind the Arabian Gulf with 46.6%, pushing the USA to third place with just 4.6% and West Africa to 4.5%. Shipments from the Arabian Gulf to India were actually down by -20.2% y-o-y in Jan-Dec 2023 to 106.2 mln t. Imports from the USA crashed by -33.3% y-o-y to just 10.5 mln t in JanDec 2023. Shipments from West Africa to India were also down by -44.3% y-o-y to 10.2 mln tonnes in Jan-Dec 2023. In Jan-Sep 2024, volumes from Russia to India increased a further +9.5% y-o-y (an extra 5.4 mln tonnes) to 62.4 mln t, although this is somewhat offset by a 2.7 mln tonnes decline in imports from transhipment in Greek waters (which one presumes was also oil of Russian origin). Volumes from the AG to India also rebounded by +3.6% y-o-y in Jan-Sep 2024 to 81.9 mln tonnes. Top crude loading ports to India in Jan-Sep 2024 were Basrah (36.4 mln t), Primorsk (23.2 mln t), Ras Tanura (22.9 mln t), Ust-Luga (15.5 mln t), Novorossiysk (14.8 mln t)”, the shipbroker concluded.
Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide

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