India and Russia’s oil consumption has increased tenfold since the war in Ukraine

New Delhi, June 23 (EFE) .- India has increased its Russian oil purchases tenfold from 1% to more than 10% of its purchases since April, making it Russia’s second largest crude oil supplier. From the beginning of the Ukrainian invasion on February 24, New Delhi began to gain ground.

Since last April, India’s Russian oil purchases have fallen from less than 1% to 10 or 12%, “sometimes high, sometimes low, which is still volatile, not a fixed figure,” he said. A senior Indian government official did not want to be named on Thursday.

Thus, India imported less than 100,000 barrels of oil (bpd) of oil per day until February this year, up from about 388,000 in April and 900,000 in May, or about 25 million barrels in 30 days, more than 15. % Of total crude oil imports.

Data from analytics firm Kpler, cited by several analysts, estimates that these acquisitions will exceed one million barrels a day of crude oil by the end of June.

As of February this year, most of India’s imports came from Iraq (23%), Saudi Arabia (18%), the United Arab Emirates (11%) or the United States (7.3%).

Current data indicate that Moscow is taking a significant leap and in a few months, has become the second largest oil supplier to India.

With a population of over 1.4 billion, India consumes about 5 million barrels of crude oil a day, of which 85% and 50% is imported natural gas, according to data from the Indian Ministry of Oil.

Although the Indian government said in a statement in early May that “Russia’s energy purchases are very low compared to India’s total consumption, purchases are increasing.

Despite pressure from Europe and the United States, India has defended its willingness to take advantage of Moscow’s discount on fossil fuels, meet the needs of its vast population and mitigate the impact of the global crisis caused by rising prices.

“We are not telling people to go and buy Russian oil. We are asking them to go and buy oil … the best oil available in the market,” Indian Foreign Minister S.K. Jaisankar said in a forum recently. Assurance that the government is pressuring Indian companies to buy Russian energy.

India is the third largest oil consumer in the world after the United States and China, and although this country’s per capita consumption represents one-third of the world’s average consumption, its growth and economic growth prospects for the next decade point to its increase. Request.

“India’s demand will continue to increase over the years and will continue to increase as it tries to use more and more renewable energy. Cancellation of contracts with suppliers will lead to suicide,” the senior official said today. EFE

igr / mt / fpa

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