India’s petroleum product exports to the European Union (EU) have grown notably over the past few months as the region weans itself off refined products from Russia due to the war in Ukraine. At a time when India’s oil imports from Russia have surged to historic highs, higher exports of refined products to the EU suggest that Indian refiners, particularly private sector players, are rushing to partly fill the supply gap for the region as it shuns Russian crude and products.
What does the data show?
India’s petroleum product exports to the EU rose 20.4 per cent year on year in April-January to 11.6 million tonnes, with the region climbing two spots from the corresponding period of the last fiscal to the top the table of 20 regions importing refined products from India, as per an analysis of data from the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCIS).
In the run-up to the EU’s ban on Russian petroleum products from February 5, India saw its refined product exports to the region rise sequentially for five straight months, touching 1.90 million tonnes in January, the highest monthly volume in the first 10 months of the current fiscal. In April-January, the EU accounted for close to 15 per cent of India’s total petroleum product exports of 79 million tonnes, against 12 per cent in the year-ago period. In the four months leading to the EU’s ban on Russian refined products, its share in India’s petroleum product exports rose from 16 per cent to almost 22 per cent.
What is the significance of the rise in India’s petroleum product exports to the EU?
The trend is significant on various counts. From the global oil markets perspective, suppliers like India are helping maintain a demand-supply balance, while preventing extreme price shocks. The EU does not want to buy crude as well as refined fuels and products from Russia. Countries like India, which is a major oil refiner, are playing their part in bridging the gap by buying Russian oil on…
