India’s Sept crude oil imports drop to 7-month lows, product exports soar

India’s monthly crude oil imports in September dropped about 8% to their lowest since February at 18.56 million metric tons, government data showed on Friday, while product exports soared to their highest in 2-1/2 years on low domestic demand.

WHY IT IS IMPORTANT

India, which is the world’s third-biggest oil importer and consumer, saw demand falling 1.6%year-on-year to 17.92 million metric tons, its lowest in two years, oil ministry data showed earlier in the month, as above-normal monsoon rains continued to weigh on diesel demand.

BY THE NUMBERS

On a monthly basis, crude oil imports were down 8% from 20.18 million metric tons in August, data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell’s website showed. Imports rose about 6% from the same month a year ago.

In September, imports of crude oil products rose 2.7% year-over-year to 4.17 million tons, while product exports jumped 34.6% to 6.49 million tons, their highest level since March 2022. Product imports were about 4% lower from August levels, while exports climbed 27.5%.

Asia’s third-biggest economy holds surplus refining capacity and exports refined fuels as well.

Exports of diesel jumped 28% to 2.7 million tons from the previous month, while those of gasoline, or petrol, gained over 5% to 1.25 million tons, the PPAC data showed.

India’s crude oil imports from Russia rose by 11.7% to about 1.9 million barrels per day in September, accounting for about two-fifths of the South Asian nation’s overall crude imports in the month, tanker data obtained from industry sources showed.

Earlier this month, a senior weather department official said India is likely to receive above average rainfall in October after unusually high volumes for the past three months which could damage summer-sown crops ready for harvesting.

An above-normal monsoon season decreases diesel demand as increased rainfall reduces the need for diesel-powered irrigation and farm machinery use.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Anushree Mukherjee and Swati Verma in Bengaluru; Editing by Alison Williams)