With Iraq retaining the lion's share, India reduces Saudi oil imports

Shafaq News/ US snatches second place in the list of India's top oil suppliers, with Iraq clenching the biggest share of the Indian imports.

India's annual imports further declined in February by 18.3% to 15.24 million tons, 106.860 million barrels, marking the largest annual drop since October 2020.

India also decided to diversify its sources of oil after it accused OPEC of raising oil prices as a result of the cuts it had made recently. Saudi Minister of Energy reminded the southeastern Asian country of the stored oil it bought at low prices early in 2020.

This prompted the Indian Ministry of Oil to urge local refiners to diversify their crude resources and reduce dependence on the Middle East, which has reduced the Middle East imports from 64% in 2016 to 60% in 2019.

As a result, India's oil imports from Saudi Arabia decreased by 42% in February to 445,200 barrels per day (bpd), while the share of the United States increased to 545,300 bpd, making it the second-largest oil exporter to the country after Iraq, which ships 867,500 barrels daily.