NEW DELHI, October 4. /TASS/. India boosted imports of Russian oil in September, with its total volume reaching 1.57 mln barrels per day, up by 9% compared with the previous month, The Economic Times newspaper reported.

The share of Russian oil in India’s total crude imports amounted to 38% in September compared to 33% in August when supplies from Russia dropped sharply after reaching peak levels exceeding 40% for several months. State-run refiners demonstrated the highest growth of purchases as their imports were a quarter higher in September compared with the previous month, whereas private refiners’ imports were down by 13%.

Such dynamics is due to a decrease in China's purchases of Russian oil, according to energy cargo tracker Vortexa cited by the newspaper. Concurrently, supplies from Saudi Arabia went down, pushing the demand for Russia crude up. In September, Russia was the largest oil supplier to India outpacing Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

India boosted imports of Russian oil substantially in 2022-2023. The share of Russian oil in the country’s imports was less than 2% in 2021-2022 financial year (starts on April 1), while by April 2023 it had reached 43%.