Crude oil import bill shrank 15.9% in FY24, thanks to Russia shipments

Discounts on a steady stream of Russian crude have led to India’s crude oil import bill shrinking by 15.9 per cent to $132.4 billion in FY24 (2023-24), down from $157.5 billion in the previous year, even as import volumes remained the same. The crude oil import bill had risen by 30.4 per cent in FY23, data shows.

However, the country imported almost the same amount of crude oil by volume in FY24, bringing in 232.5 million metric tonnes (mmt) of crude in FY24, official data released on Wednesday by the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell showed. This was marginally down by 0.1 per cent as compared to FY23.

This was also the second year that import volumes have remained above the pre-pandemic levels. Imports stood at 226.9 mmt in 2019-20, falling to 196.4 mmt in 2020-21. However, India’s import dependency hit a fresh high of 87.7 per cent in FY24, up from 87.4 per cent and 85.5 per cent in the previous two years. When calculated based on the consumption of petroleum products, import dependency on crude oil inched up to 88 per cent in March.

In March, crude imports decreased by 4.4 per cent to $20 billion, down from $20.9 billion in March, 2023 owing to higher global prices.

According to estimates by London-based commodity data analytics provider Vortexa, which uses ship movements to gauge imports, Russia remained the single-largest supplier of crude oil for the 18th consecutive month as of March. At 1.36 million barrels of crude oil per day, imports from Russia rose 7 per cent month-on-month in March, as compared to February.

Analysts had earlier predicted lower imports from the country after the US imposed fresh sanctions against Russia’s leading tanker group, Sovcomflot, on 23 February. Announced on the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the sanctions were placed on 14 tankers part of the fleet.

However, the average incidence of discounts received by India has also come down to its lowest since the invasion of Ukraine in late-2023 in recent months. It hovered around $3-4 per barrel in March, sources said.