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In March, India had directed refiners to diversify crude supplies after the OPEC ignored New Delhi’s call to ease supply curbs
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Middle East’s share dropped to 52.7%, the lowest since April 2019 and down from 67.9% in April, the data showed
The tanker data provided by trade sources to Reuters news agency has revealed that Middle East’s share of India’s oil imports has fallen to a 25-month low in May.
In March, India had directed refiners to diversify crude supplies in response to Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) ignoring New Delhi’s call to ease supply curbs.
Middle East’s share dropped to 52.7%, the lowest since April 2019 and down from 67.9% in April, the data showed, Reuters reported.
According to the agency, imports from Saudi Arabia, India’s second-largest supplier after Iraq, slipped by about a quarter from a year earlier, while supplies from the United Arab Emirates, which dropped to No. 7 position from No. 3 in April, fell by 39%, the data showed.
To make up for the shortfall, India, the third largest importer of crude, hiked imports from Latin America, the United States and the Mediterranean.
India, Asia’s third-biggest economy, imports and exports refined fuels as it holds surplus refining capacity.