*India, Asia’s number two and global number three crude importer, notched up a quarterly record 4.75mn b/d crude imports in Q1 2020. That seems like a long time ago. For all except one of the subsequent months Indian imports have been the lowest in at least four years (see chart).
*For the first 11 months of 2020 as a whole crude imports averaged 3.81mn b/d, down 13.6% year-on-year, and the lowest figure since 2014.
*The latest official data for November shows India’s top suppliers continuing to turn in lacklustre performances. Number one Iraq with 821,000 b/d and number two Saudi Arabia on 691,000 b/d are each some 160,000 b/d below average 2019 volumes.
*There are signs of things ramping up however. Key refiner Indian Oil says its plants have hit 100% throughputs “as consumption of all petroleum products has almost reached pre-Covid,” whilst Kpler has some 4.9mn b/d arriving this month, the highest figure since January.
*Among other key Asian crude importers, numbers three and four South Korea and Japan have like India seen volumes remain depressed. Korean imports for 11M 2020 are down 9.0% at 2.65mn b/d (MEES, 11 December) and those for Japan down 17.5% at 2.48mn b/d. This makes number one China, with 11M 2020 volumes up 9.4% year-on-year, a major outlier (MEES, 11 December).
