* Iraq still top seller despite monthly decline of 23%
* Nigeria became 3rd biggest oil supplier to India vs 5th in
Jan
* UAE slipped to 5th position from 3rd in Jan
* Middle East's share of India's oil imports hit 22-mth low
(Add details)
By Nidhi Verma
NEW DELHI, March 15 (Reuters) - The United States overtook
Saudi Arabia as India's second biggest oil supplier after Iraq
last month, as refiners boosted cheaper U.S. crude purchases to
record levels to offset OPEC+ supply cuts, data from trade
sources showed.
The switch in supplies, triggered by lower U.S. crude
demand, coincided with Saudi Arabia's voluntary extra 1 million
barrel per day (bpd) output cut, on top of an agreement by the
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies
(OPEC+) to maintain lower production.
India's imports from the United States - the world's top
producer - rose 48% to a record 545,300 bpd in February from the
prior month, accounting for 14% of India's overall imports last
month, the data obtained by Reuters showed.
In contrast, February imports from Saudi Arabia fell by 42%
from January to a decade low of 445,200 bpd, the data showed.
Saudi Arabia, which has consistently been one of India's top two
suppliers, slipped to No. 4 for the first time since at least
January 2006.
India's oil import data by country from before 2006 is not
available to Reuters.
"U.S. demand was weak and refineries were running at low
rates so the U.S. crude had to go somewhere, and Asia is the
region which has seen rapid demand recovery," said Refinitiv
analyst Ehsan Ul Haq.
"China has not been taking U.S. oil because of (the) trade
problem, so India is the obvious choice," he said.
Iraq continued to be the top oil seller to India despite a
23% drop in purchases to a five-month low of 867,500 bpd, the
data showed. The UAE slipped to fifth position from third in January,
while Nigeria rose to third from fifth, exporting 472,300 bpd,
the most since Oct 2019.
India shipped in 3.92 million bpd of oil in February, a
decline of 18% from January, the data showed. Haq said India may have taken smaller volumes in February
because, similarly to others in the market, it assumed that
OPEC+ might ease production cuts, potentially leading to lower
prices.
India has repeatedly called on OPEC+ to ease supply curbs
and has blamed Saudi's voluntary cuts for contributing to a
spike in global oil prices. The country is the world's third biggest oil importer and
consumer, shipping in about 84% of its crude needs, and relies
heavily on the Middle East.
Its government has asked refiners to speed up
diversification of crude sources after Saudi Arabia's oil
minister, in response to India's calls for producers to ease
output cuts, told the country to dip into reserves filled with
cheaper oil bought last year.
The Middle East's share of India's overall imports plunged
to a 22-month low of about 52.7%, while Africa's rose to 15%,
the highest since September.
"(The) widening differential between WTI and Brent during
December and January, and relatively subdued freight rates,
offered India an opportunity to buy U.S. oil to make up for
lower Middle Eastern suppliers," Haq said.
Low supplies from the Middle East dragged OPEC nations'
share of India's oil imports to a record low in the April to
February period.
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Share of various regions in India's oil imports https://tmsnrt.rs/3qzr0GY
India-OPEC Opec's share of India's oil imports drop to record
low https://tmsnrt.rs/3bFvpUr
India-oil India's oil imports from key suppliers https://tmsnrt.rs/3bu8wCg
TABLE-India's Feb oil imports decline 17.8% y/y - trade
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