*Indian crude imports from Russia more than doubled to a record 1.64mn b/d for 2023 as the sanctions-hit producer surged ahead of Iraq and Saudi Arabia as top supplier.
*Iraqi supplies were down 9% at 977,000 b/d for second whilst Saudi was down 14% at 717,000 b/d for third. Numbers four to six suppliers the UAE, USA and Kuwait all saw falls of over 30% as Russia cornered a whopping 34.5% of the Indian market, the largest share for any single country ever. In contrast the total Opec share of 48.8% was a record low (see chart & table). (CONTINUED - 344 WORDS)
