Saudi Arabia’s crude exports to India jumped 69% to 820,000 barrels per day (bpd) in August 2023 from 484,000 bpd in July.

However, oil exports from the UAE to the South Asian country fell nearly 6% to 273,000 bpd in August from 290,000 bpd a month ago, state-owned Press Trust of India (PTI) reported, quoting data from energy cargo tracker Vortexa.

The world’s third largest oil consumer also trimmed imports from Russia for a third straight month to 1.46 million bpd in August, down from 1.91 million barrels a month earlier. 

India’s total crude imports declined 7% to 4.35 million bpd during the period but is likely to pick up from October as demand is expected to surge in the fourth quarter.

“Refiners have raised imports from Saudi Arabia off the back of strong refinery runs and lower refinery supplies from Russia," said Vortexa’s head of Asia-Pacific analysis Serena Huang.

Given tight crude supplies from Saudi Arabia, it remains to be seen whether imports from the Kingdom can be sustained at this level, she added.

Last month, Riyadh said it would extend a voluntary oil output cut of one million barrels per day for another month to include September. It could be extended beyond that or deepened.

In August, India and the UAE started settling bilateral trade in their local currencies, with refiner Indian Oil Corporation paying rupees to purchase a million barrels of oil from Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC).

New Delhi and Abu Dhabi signed in July an agreement to settle trade in local currencies instead of US dollars.

(Editing by Seban Scaria seban.scaria@lseg.com)