Total fuel demand in India, the world’s third-biggest crude oil importer, surged in November to the highest level in six months as construction and agriculture activity picked up after the end of the monsoon season.
India consumed 21.27 million tons of fuels of all kinds in November, up by 3% from a year earlier, and the highest level since May 2025, before the monsoon season began, data from India’s Petroleum Ministry showed.
Gasoline demand fell from the festive month of October in November, but was 2.6% higher last month compared to November 2024.
Consumption of diesel, the most used of any fuel in India, jumped to 8.55 million tons in November, up by 12.2% from October a 4.7% increase compared to November 2024, according to the official data.
With the rebound in fuel consumption, India now has to solve its current predicament of having to source crude from sellers other than the two sanctioned Russian giants Rosneft and Lukoil.
The decline of India’s crude oil imports from Russia could be only temporary as Russia plans to boost supply and evade Western sanctions, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last week on the eve of Vladimir Putin’s visit to India.
Before the latest sanctions on Russian oil trade, India bought from Russia around one-third of all the crude it imported, as it sought cheaper oil.
Amid tense trade negotiations with the United States, India earlier this year was singled out by U.S. President Donald Trump as the main financier of the Kremlin’s oil revenues. At the time, India remained adamant that it would buy the cheapest oil available, regardless of whether it came from Russia or elsewhere.
However, the U.S. sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil upended all previous plans by Indian refiners, who hastened to withdraw from the spot market for Russian crude in December.
India’s Bharat Petroleum and India Oil Corporation have bought Russian crude from non-sanctioned companies for January delivery, at a discount of $6-$7 to Brent crude, reports emerged last week.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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