India, China Compete in Oil Imports

India and China, two Asian giants whose populations will soon reach 3 billion, are competing for the position of the world’s largest importer of Russian oil. In April 2024, India boasted for the first time that it had overtaken China as the largest buyer of Russian oil. “India biggest importer of seaborne Russian crude in April, beats China,” proudly titled India’s reputable economic and financial newspaper Business Standard, emphasizing that India’s oil imports from Russia in April exceeded China’s by at least 450,000 barrels per day.

According to Kpler, India’s imports of Russian crude oil rose 19% in April compared to the previous month’s results and reached a record high of 1.96 million bpd in the last 9 months. India’s total daily oil imports in April totaled 4.86 million barrels – still well behind China – of which Russia’s share rose to 40.3 percent. According to another Indian newspaper, The New Indian Express, the tanker fleet delivered 1.54 million barrels of Urals crude oil to Indian ports in April in a 24-hour period, despite US sanctions imposed on Russian shipowner Sovcomflot.

The Indian newspaper also noted that “sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies, including the European Union, against Moscow, have led to savings in India’s oil import bill amounting to $5.1 billion in fiscal year 2023 and $7.9 billion in 11 months of fiscal year 2024.” For the first time, Russian oil exports to India exceeded those of Saudi Arabia, formerly the main supplier to Indian refineries. In addition to favorable prices, traders attributed the surge in Russian exports to the problems of Venezuela, whose exports of liquid hydrocarbons were once again affected by US sanctions.

According to the Customs Administration of China, in the first four months of 2024, the country imported crude oil in the amount of 11.17 million bpd, which exceeded the results of the corresponding period last year by 290,000 bpd.

At the moment, even Europe cannot do without Russian energy sources: the Russian group Gazprom continues to supply significant amounts of gas to Europe, against all odds, via the former Soviet gas pipeline system running through the territory of Ukraine. According to a company representative quoted by the TASS news agency, Gazprom currently exports an average of 42.4 million cubic meters of gas per day to the EU. Russia’s contract with Ukraine on gas transit to Europe, which costs Gazprom more than $1.3 billion per year, expires at the end of 2024, and it will be very difficult, almost impossible, to extend it.