Iran crossed rival Saudi Arabia as India's top oil supplier in October as seen in shipping data. Once India's second-biggest oil supplier, Iran's oil exports to India shot up this year after Western sanctions were lifted in January. In October, they grew more than threefold as compared with the same month last year, rising to 7,89,000 barrels per day.
Ship tracking data and a report compiled by Thomson Reuters Oil Research and Forecasts collected data said, however, over the whole January to October period though, Saudi Arabia still holds India's top supply spot at an average of 8,39,000 bpd versus Iraq's 7,84,000 bpd and Iran's 4,56,400 bpd. Iran's jump to the first spot is partly due to less available crude from Saudi Arabia, which has increased its capacity to refine oil instead of just extorting more crude. Ehsaan ul Haq of the United Kingdom-based consultancy KBC Energy said, "Saudi Arabia's refining capacity has increased over time and so it is not in a position to increase its exports further, whereas Iran is better placed to raise its output and sales to India."
Iranian price discounts have also contributed to the surge, attracting purchases from India's programme to build up its strategic petroleum reserves. India took in 2 million barrels of Iranian crude for the SPR stocks last month, and another 4 million barrels is expected to be shipped in November. The country produces almost 4 million bpd of oil and exports 2.4 million bpd. Tehran's exports dropped to 1 million bpd during sanctions, down from a peak of almost 3 million bpd in 2011, before tougher Western sanctions were implemented.
