India raised its purchases of Russia’s Far East crude blend ESPO in the first seven months of the year as China backed out of the spot market in the first months of the Iran war and deliveries to India from the Middle East slumped with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Total exports of the ESPO grade from Russia’s Far Eastern port of Kozmino rose by 6% in January-July from a year earlier, Russian daily Kommersant reported on Wednesday, citing a report by Argus.
China remained the key buyer of ESPO crude, but its share of the shipments from Kozmino fell to 83% from 88%. At the same time, India’s share of the ESPO exports increased to 16% to 12% in the first seven months of 2026, per data from Vortexa and Kpler cited in the report.
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India raised its ESPO imports due to the slump in Chinese oil imports between May and June, and the supply disruptions in the Middle East, which delayed many term cargoes Indian refiners were expecting in the early summer.
The rise in Indian ESPO imports are due to logistics reasons and the Chinese pullback between April and June, according to Dmitry Prokofiev, director of external communications at NEFT Research.
ESPO remains a key feedstock for China’s independent refiners, the so-called teapots, due to the high quality and short delivery times, Prokofiev told Kommersant.
Indian refiners, on the other hand, see the ESPO blend as a back-up option because costs and delivery times are higher than for their preferred Urals blend from Russia.
India raises ESPO imports only when China retreats or when supply disruptions occur, according to Prokofiev.
Analysts say that India isn’t eating into China’s ESPO share, it has just picked in recent months volumes that Chinese refiners would not buy because of the slashed total crude oil imports.
Meanwhile, India’s crude oil imports from Russia are estimated to have eased in August from July’s record high, as Ukrainian attacks on Russian export infrastructure and competition from China for Russia’s barrels have dented Indian intake of Moscow’s oil.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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