Indian companies emerged as the largest buyers of Iraqi oil in June, when the OPEC member netted more than $7 billion, official figures showed on Friday.

Seven companies from India bought Iraqi crude in June while 6 importers were from China, showed the figures by Iraq’s State Organization for Marketing Oil (SOMO).

In a report published by Aliqtisad News and other Iraqi publications, SOMO said other key clients were the US, South Korea and Italy, with 3 firms from each country buying Iraqi crude. They were followed by Spain, Russia, turkey, Jordan and France.

The report showed that India’s Hindustan Group was the biggest importer of Iraqi oil in June, following by ExxonMobil of the US, Shell Group and Eni of Italy.

In June, Iraq netted around $7.18 billion from oil exports of more than 3.3 million bpd, the second largest crude producer in OPEC, according to the report.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)