US pressure seems to have worked on India’s crude oil import basket, with Iran witnessing a significant drop in its position as a major supplier.
Though India has been maintaining that it is not reducing imports from Iran, the import numbers indicate a different story.
Iran, which once was the second largest supplier of crude oil to India saw its position being taken over by Iraq last year (2011-12), and if figures of the of the first four months (April-July) of the fiscal are any indication, the position is likely to drop further.
Overtaking Iran in the first four months have been Iraq, Kuwait, Venezuela, UAE, and Nigeria, even as Saudi Arabia maintained its largest supplier position.
Before geo-politics started hitting Iran supplies, it was India’s second-biggest crude oil supplier after Saudi Arabia, meeting about 12 per cent of the country’s needs.
Domestic refiner Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd has cut its sourcing from Iran by almost 25 per cent. MRPL, which was importing 7 million tonne, is proposing to import only 5 million tonne this fiscal.
While Essar Oil, another major buyer from Iran, is now looking towards Latin America for crude oil. Essar has been sourcing 5 million tonne from Iran, which is expected to come down by 15 per cent, sources said.
According to industry observers, Iraq has emerged as the next major supplier as two big domestic refiners – Indian Oil Corporation and Reliance Industries – source their crude oil from there. Reliance is also sourcing from Venezuela.
Observes say that if the trend continues then the total import from Iran for the fiscal may just be close to 12 million tonne.
For the April-July period the domestic refiners have imported 57.238 million tonne of crude oil.
For the fiscal 2011-12 the country had imported 171.73 million tonne of crude, and is expected to go up to 181-185 million tonne, with new refineries been added.
The country’s current refinery capacity is 213 million tonne.
The period also saw imports from Qatar, Mexico, Turkey, Brazil, Angola, Yemen, Oman, Cameroon, Congo, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Libya, Brunei, Malaysia, Colombia, and Albania.