India's imports from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar jumped in September as suppliers found a way to move oil through the Strait of Hormuz, even as Russian volumes fell for a second straight month, according to provisional tanker-tracking data from Kpler.
Gulf Barrels Return
Iraq's shipments rose 238.2% over August to more than 551,000 barrels per day.
Saudi Arabia's climbed 56.2% to nearly 543,000 bpd, and Kuwait's more than doubled, up 104.4%. Qatar, which sent nothing in August, delivered around 110,000 bpd. Only the UAE slipped, down 15.8% to about 460,000 bpd.
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Together, the five suppliers sent roughly 2 million bpd, a 36.7% share of India's crude imports. That is up from 26% in August, though still well below the 56.3% share and about 3 million bpd recorded in February, before the West Asia war began.
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How The Workaround Works
The jump owes much to ship-to-ship transfers. Instead of a tanker sailing straight to India, a shuttle vessel carries the crude part of the way and hands it to another ship waiting in safer waters.
The supplier bears the risk of the Hormuz leg, which previously fell on buyers who had to charter ships into the Gulf. Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar depend most heavily on the strait, while Saudi Arabia and the UAE have pipelines that bypass it.
Trade sources told The Indian Express that Iran has so far been unable to disrupt the arrangement, with US naval protection helping.
Russian Flows Under Pressure
Russian crude, India's largest source, fell almost 9% to 1.9 million bpd in September from 2.1 million bpd in August. That is a five-month low and well short of July's record 2.8 million bpd, though Russia still supplied over 35% of India's imports.
Kpler data points to stiffer competition from Chinese refiners, who have turned to Russian barrels as Iranian volumes shrink. Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure, a growing risk for tankers in the Black Sea, and Moscow's push to keep more crude for its own refineries have also curbed exports.
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Sanctions Cloud The Outlook
A recently enacted US law, the Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, lets US President Donald Trump impose tariffs of up to 100% on the biggest buyers of Russian oil, a list topped by China and India. New Delhi has said securing energy for its 1.4 billion people is its priority.
Nikhil Dubey, lead analyst for refining at Kpler, said better Middle Eastern availability, together with the sanctions uncertainty, could push Indian refiners further towards Gulf crude.
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