India's crude oil imports from Russia drop sharply in December
India's crude oil imports from its largest supplier, Russia, declined sharply in December. Imports have fallen to their lowest since January 2023, as six tankers carrying Sokol-grade oil could not be delivered due to payment issues amid tightening sanctions. After peaking at 2.15 million barrels a day in May, Russian oil imports sharply declined to 1.48 million barrels a day in December, data from intelligence firm Kpler showed.
Payment issues and undelivered cargoes
Indian refiners, who purchased an average of 1,40,000 barrels of Sokol daily in 2023, were unable to receive any shipments in December. Sakhalin-1 LLC, responsible for extracting crude from Russia's Far East, has struggled to open a UAE bank account for buyers to pay in dirhams, according to Kpler's lead crude analyst Viktor Katona. Two of the six idle tankers near India's coast may reroute to China.
Future prospects for Russia-India oil trade
Despite these challenges, trade in Sokol-grade oil between Russia and India is expected to continue. Katona noted that three additional ship-to-ship transfer operations and three new cargoes—NS Antarctic, Jaguar, and Vostochny Prospect—now list India as their final destination. In 2023, India's oil imports from Russia more than doubled to 1.79 million barrels a day, while imports from the second-largest supplier, Iraq, decreased by 11% to 908,000 barrels a day.
