US remained the outlier in January with crude imports rising, shows data

Imports from Russia fell by nearly a fifth despite remaining largest source of crude

The US was the only major source nation from which crude flows rose in January, with imports rising 3.4x by value and 4x by volume, official data shows. Data released by the commerce department shows the rise in US oil coincided with lower volumes coming in from Russia and traditional West Asian suppliers such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. This pulled down overall crude oil imports by 16.3 per cent on a year-on-year (Y-o-Y) basis. The data is usually released with a lag of three months.

 

Crude imports from Russia fell for the second month in a row in January, when former US President Joe Biden’s last set of sanctions were announced against Moscow.

 

Even as it remained the largest source of oil for India, contributing 35 per cent of all imports, Russia sent less crude to India.

 

In December 2024, imports had fallen for the first time in five months. This indicated that crude supplies from the country had begun to decline in value terms even before the latest spate of sanctions targeted at Moscow was unveiled by the US in January.

 

On a Y-o-Y basis, inbound crude shipments from Russia decreased by nearly a fifth, or 19.35 per cent, to $3.61 billion in January, down from $4.47 billion in January 2024. Imports had shrunk by 18.48 per cent in December. Before this, inflows from Russia had risen by 8 per cent, 53 per cent, and 34.2 per cent in November, October, and September, respectively. They had fallen in August due to planned shutdowns for maintenance work at several major domestic refineries.

 

Meanwhile, crude inflows from the US saw the highest rise among the top source nations. They rose by 15 per cent in the April–January period of 2024–25. 

 

Among other major import sources, Iraq and Saudi Arabia also sold 9.69 per cent and 10.78 per cent less oil to India. The volume of imports from the two countries was also down by 3.04 per cent and 2.61 per cent, respectively.

 

Shifting supplies

 

The January figures show that the bulk of demand for crude may have switched to other source nations even before the US sanctions — and with more relative ease than had earlier been expected.

 

The Biden administration had, on January 10, unveiled the broadest package of sanctions yet against Russia, targeting oil producers, tankers, intermediaries, traders, and ports.

 

The US Treasury slapped sanctions on upstream oil and gas majors Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas. Importantly for India, the US sanctioned 183 vessels that have shipped Russian oil — some of which may have been carrying crude oil to India — as well as one of the major Russian insurance providers.

 

“Indian importers have worked out some alternative arrangements since then (January). But general volatility in the global oil markets since then has complicated efforts,” an official said.