Indian refiners pivot to Latin America, Africa amid Middle East supply disruptions

New Delhi: Indian refiners turned to imports from Latin America and Africa after supplies from the Middle East were disrupted as the Israeli-U.S. war on Iran restricted shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, data provided by trade sources show.

Refiners in the world's third-largest oil importer and consumer bought most of their crude from the nearby Middle East until the war broke out at the end of February.

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In April and May, Indian refiners raised imports from Venezuela, Brazil, Angola and Nigeria to make up the shortfall, as well as continuing to buy Russian oil, preliminary data from Kpler show.

Last month, India skipped purchases from Iraq as exports were halted, while it received Iranian oil after a gap of seven years following a temporary waiver granted by Washington to help stabilise global oil prices.

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New Delhi reduced imports from Russia by about 29.4% from March to 1.6 million barrels per day as Nayara Energy shut its 400,000-bpd refinery for maintenance, the data showed.

However, in May, India is due to get about 1.9 million bpd of Russian oil and about 41,000 bpd of Iraqi oil, preliminary data from Kpler showed.

Overall, India imported 4.57 million bpd oil in April, unchanged from March, but down 15.5% from a year earlier, the data showed.

Imports from the United Arab Emirates rebounded in April to 669,700 bpd from 230,600 bpd in March while intake of Saudi Arabian oil stayed at about 619,500 bpd, the data showed.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia are the only Gulf producers with pipelines that export crude bypassing the Strait of Hormuz, while Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar, and Bahrain rely on the waterway for shipments.

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The share of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, including the UAE as its member during the month, in India's imports rose to 45.2% in April from about 30% in March, the data showed.

The UAE exited OPEC in May, freeing it from oil output quotas.

Higher imports from the UAE helped arrest a decline in the Middle East's share of India's imports, while the share of Russian oil declined to about 35% from nearly 50%.

Russia remained India's top oil supplier, followed by the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Brazil was the fourth-largest supplier, while Venezuela ranked fifth. Venezuela is on course to become the fourth-largest supplier in May, Kpler data showed.