India’s crude imports rise 7% in September, bill surges 47%

Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription

Image for representational purposes only. Photo: BISWARANJAN ROUT | Photo Credit: BISWARANJAN ROUT

India’s crude oil import bill surged 47% year-on-year (YoY) to $15.4 billion in September, amid resurging conflict in West Asia, according to provisional government data.

Data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) showed that crude oil imports rose 7% YoY to 21.7 million metric tonnes (MMT) in September, even as shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) were about 8.5% lower although import bill stayed almost flat.

The increase in import costs widened India’s net oil and gas import bill — calculated as imports of crude oil, petroleum products and gas minus exports of petroleum products — by 39.6% to $13.4 billion during the month.

Petroleum product exports declined 24.2% to 4.7 MMT in September, while revenue accrued from the exports accelerated about 20% to $4.8 billion, according to the data.

In contrast, LNG imports declined 8.5% to 2,957 million standard cubic metres (MMSCM) in September, from 3,233 MMSCM in the corresponding month last year. However, the LNG import bill remained almost unchanged at $1.2 billion.

oil and gas - downstream activities / oil and gas - upstream activities / economy, business and finance / prices / imports / exports

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.