Crude oil imports seen dropping in May

General consumption of petroleum merchandise within the month was, nevertheless, 81.5% increased yearly, primarily on a decrease base of abnormally muted gross sales in April 2020.

Although India’s crude imports and refinery utilisation ranges remained strong in April, analysts at S&P International Platts mentioned that the total influence of demand destruction from the second wave of the coronavirus will get mirrored solely in Could. Indian refiners shipped in cargoes contracted earlier and avoided backing out of offers in April regardless of a second wave of the coronavirus triggering demand destruction fears.

“Identical to final 12 months, India’s refiners had been gradual to reply as crudes have been purchased upfront,” Lim Jit Yang, advisor for Asia-Pacific oil markets at S&P International Platts Analytics, mentioned, including that “however as they began to understand the severity of demand influence from lockdown measures, they’re anticipated to cut back runs and a few have already accomplished in order gross sales of the primary half in Could turned out to be very weak”. In April, Indian Oil Corporation had a refinery run charge of 96.1%, which had dropped to 84% within the first 7 days in Could.

Crude oil imports elevated by 10.3% year-on-year (y-o-y) to 18.3 million tonnes (MT) throughout April 2021. The worth of imports nevertheless was increased by 183% to $8.5 billion. The Indian basket crude value averaged $63.4/barrel throughout April towards $19.90/barrel in the identical month a 12 months in the past. Owing to decrease worldwide crude oil charges within the earlier half of the fiscal, worth of crude imports had fallen 38% y-o-y to $62.7 billion in FY21 although import volumes had decreased by about 13% yearly to 198 MT.

Consumption of Petroleum merchandise fell to 17 MT in April, the bottom recorded since September 2020, signalling that the re-imposition of lockdown curbs with the second wave of the coronavirus in lots of areas has slowed industrial and business consumption. Diesel gross sales, which contribute to round 40% of the full consumption of petroleum merchandise, was 7.5% decrease in April than March.

Petrol gross sales have been the bottom since August 2020, and down 13% from March to 2.4 MT. General consumption of petroleum merchandise within the month was, nevertheless, 81.5% increased yearly, primarily on a decrease base of abnormally muted gross sales in April 2020.