US becomes India's 4th largest crude oil supplier in April

In April, US crude oil supply to India nearly doubled year-over-year, surpassing the UAE to become India's fourth-largest supplier.

New Delhi: The US nearly doubled its crude oil supply to India in April compared to year earlier, overtaking the UAE to become India's fourth-largest supplier. India's imports of US crude grew to 0.33 million barrels per day (mbd) in April, up from 0.17 mbd in the same month last year and 0.24 mbd in March, according to energy cargo tracker Vortexa. This gave the US a 7.3% share in India's crude imports in April-ahead of the UAE's 6.4%, but behind Saudi Arabia's 10.4%, Iraq's 19.1% and Russia's 37.8%. Compared to March, the shares of Russian and Iraqi imports improved in April, while those of Saudi Arabia and the UAE declined.

India aims to increase its energy imports from the US, following pressure from President Donald Trump to address the trade imbalance between the two countries. In February, soon after a meeting between Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington, foreign secretary Vikram Misri said there was "a good chance" that India's energy purchases from the US would rise to as much as $25 billion in the near future from $15 billion last year.

"As for US flows growing, it has more to do with slowing US exports to Europe-especially due to alternative light-sweet supplies closer to Europe and recent refinery closures-pushing these barrels toward other markets, mainly Asia and India," said Rohit Rathod, analyst at Vortexa. India accounted for about 8% of US crude imports by all countries in April.Rathod attributed the decline in UAE crude flows to India in April to high exports from the Gulf country in March.

Imports of Saudi oil also fell in April, "most likely as they try to regain market share elsewhere-in East Asia and Europe," Rathod said. "With the rising output from OPEC+, we should see the return of Saudi barrels into Indian imports."

OPEC+, a group of nearly two dozen countries led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, is increasing supplies by about 400,000 barrels per day from May and by the same amount from June. Most of the additional supplies are expected to come from Saudi Arabia, which has significant spare capacity.Russia remains the top supplier to India, primarily due to the discounts it offers to Indian buyers. India's private sector refineries, operated by Reliance Industries and Rosneft-backed Nayara Energy, remain its primary customers.