Record high imports of crude oil from Russia in fiscal 2022-23 helped India’s refiners boost exports of diesel and jet fuel to Europe as the continent shunned Russian products, preliminary ship-tracking data from Kpler and Vortexa showed.

Access to cheap Russian crude has boosted output and profits at Indian refineries, enabling them to export refined products competitively to Europe and take bigger market share.

Europe typically imported an average of 154,000 barrels per day (bpd) of diesel and jet fuel from India before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

That increased to 200,000 bpd after the European Union banned Russian oil products imports from Feb. 5, Kpler data showed.

India’s imports of Russian crude in March rose for the seventh straight month to end out the fiscal year as top supplier to India, displacing Iraq for the first time, the data showed.

Indian refiners, which rarely bought Russian oil previously due to high transport costs, imported 970,000-981,000 bpd of it in 2022/23, accounting for more than a fifth of overall imports at 4.5-4.6 million bpd, Kpler and Vortexa data showed.

Imports from Iraq slipped to 936,000-961,000 bpd from nearly 1 million bpd in 2021/22, the data showed.

source reuters.com