NEW DELHI: India’s oil imports from Iran fell 19% last month, while other regional oil-exporting nations Iraq and Saudi Arabia saw a rise in their November oil shipments to the world’s third-largest oil consumer. According to Thomson Reuters Oil Research and Forecasts’ ship tracking data and report, India imported about 620,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil from Tehran in November. In October this year, total oil shipments from Tehran stood at 765,500 bpd. The drop in November came after OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members and non-OPEC producers signed an agreement to cut down on their total oil production in order to strengthen global oil prices.
Iran, however, was initially reluctant to reduce oil production, but after Saudi Arabia, the largest oil producer among OPEC members agreed to the conditions, the deal was finally inked last month. Iran’s oil supply to India more than doubled during January-November this year to 468,900 bpd from 205,900 bpd during the corresponding period of last year.
India’s average oil imports from Iran rose 126% to 532,100 bpd during the first eight months of current fiscal. Overall, India’s oil imports from the Middle East touched almost two-thirds of its total oil imports in January-November 2016, while the total supply from this oil-rich region stood at around 58% last year. Meanwhile, Latin America’s share of oil imports declined to almost 15.5% from 18.7% a year ago, while Africa’s share also fell to 15.3% from about 20.2% last year.
