BAGHDAD: Iraq could overtake Saudi Arabia as the biggest crude oil supplier to India in the current fiscal year ending March 31 as an attractive Basrah crude price and Riyadh’s strong commitment to the OPEC production cut agreement pave the way for Baghdad to boost its market share in South Asia.
India, the world’s third-largest crude importer, bought 38.9 million mt from Iraq during the first 10 months of fiscal 2017-2018, provisional data from the oil ministry showed.
Saudi Arabia was the second-biggest crude supplier with 30.9 million mt over the April 2017-January 2018 period, the oil ministry data showed.
In the previous fiscal year, Saudi Arabia was the top crude supplier with 39.5 million mt, followed by Iraq with 37.5 million mt and Iran with 27.2 million mt. Saudi Arabia’s faltering market share in India is in line with crude import trends seen in Northeast Asia over the past few quarters. The biggest OPEC producer’s strong commitment to limit production may have helped some of its rival producers gain market share across Asia, market participants said.
This put the Basrah Light OSP differential for February at a discount of 10 cents/b to Arab Medium OSP differential for the same month. The spread was last narrower in October 2016 when the Iraqi grade was priced at a discount of 15 cents/b to the Saudi crude.
