NEW DELHI, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- Russia, which met India's minimal oil requirements till March this year, emerged as the country's biggest oil supplier in October surpassing traditional sellers Saudi Arabia and Iraq, India's private news network Zee News reported on Sunday.
Citing data from the energy cargo tracker Vortexa, the report said Russia in October accounted for 22 percent of India's total crude imports, compared to Iraq's 20.5 percent and Saudi Arabia's 16 percent.
"Russia supplied 935,556 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil to India in October, even as it made up for just 0.2 percent of all oil imported by India in the year until March 31, 2022," the report said.
"India imported just 36,255 bpd of crude oil from Russia in December 2021, as compared to 1.05 million bpd from Iraq and 952,625 bpd from Saudi Arabia," added the report.
According to the report, there were no oil imports from Russia in the two months of January and February, and India has imported more Russian oil after the conflict in Ukraine broke out in late February.
India imported 68,600 bpd of Russian oil in March, and the import increased to 266,617 bpd in the following month and peaked at 942,694 bpd in June. But in June, Iraq was India's top supplier with 1.04 million bpd of oil. Russia in that month became India's second biggest supplier, said the report. ■