India's crude oil imports rose about 3.9% in October to 19.52 million metric tons, government data showed on Friday, as domestic consumption increased.

WHY IT IS IMPORTANT

India, which is the world's third-biggest oil importer and consumer, saw demand rising by 2.9% year-on-year in October to 20.04 million metric tons, oil ministry data showed earlier this month, driven by strong economic activity.

BY THE NUMBERS

On a monthly basis, crude oil imports were up 3.9% from 18.79 million metric tons in September, data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell's (PPAC) website showed. Imports rose about 4.2% from the same month a year ago.

Imports of crude oil products fell 2.2% in October year-on-year to 4.45 million tons, while product exports jumped 12.7% to 5.05 million tons. Product imports were about 6.7% higher than September levels, while exports fell 22.1%.

Asia's third-biggest economy holds surplus refining capacity and exports refined fuels as well.

Imports of fuel oil jumped 18.5% from the previous month, while exports of gasoline, or petrol, fell by more than 10% to 1.12 million tons, the PPAC data showed.

QUOTE

"With oil consumption increasing post a heavy monsoon season, rising oil imports are needed to cover that increase," said UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo.

CONTEXT

India's crude oil imports from Russia rose by 11.7% to about 1.9 million barrels per day (bpd) in September, accounting for about two-fifths of the South Asian nation's overall crude imports in the month, tanker data obtained from industry sources showed.

According to the data, imports from the Middle East fell to about a 41.6% share in April-September from 43.8% a year earlier.

India has become the top buyer of discounted Russian sea-borne oil shunned by Western countries since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began in early 2022. Before that, India bought little oil from its long-time defence partner Russia.

Source: Reuters (Reporting by Anjana Anil in Bengaluru; editing by David Evans and Susan Fenton)