India sharply increased crude purchases from Gulf producers in September as refiners and traders adapted shipping arrangements to continuing disruption around the Strait of Hormuz.
Indian imports from West Asia rose approximately 74% from August to about 2.10 million barrels per day.
That compares with roughly 1.21 million barrels per day in August.
Ship-to-ship transfers played an increasingly important role in keeping crude moving despite elevated transportation and security risks around Gulf export routes.
Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait were among the major contributors to the increase, with Iraqi shipments more than tripling from the previous month.
At the same time, India’s imports of Russian crude declined for a second consecutive month.
Russian flows fell to approximately 1.88 million barrels per day after reaching 2.83 million in July. Russia’s share of Indian crude imports consequently dropped to roughly 35% in September from nearly 56% in July.
The shift is important because India has become one of the world’s largest marginal buyers of Russian crude since Western sanctions reshaped global energy trade.
The September figures demonstrate how quickly refiners can alter sourcing when price, availability and transportation conditions change.
Russian infrastructure disruptions and changing Asian demand have affected the relative attractiveness of Russian barrels, while Gulf exporters have developed alternative methods for keeping cargoes moving.
India has also diversified purchases toward producers in Africa and the Americas.
For global oil markets, the development shows that disruption around Hormuz has not simply removed Middle Eastern supply from international trade. Instead, increasingly complicated logistics are changing how barrels reach major Asian consumers.
The next test is whether October shipments sustain the rebound in Gulf crude or whether security, freight and insurance costs again push Indian refiners toward alternative suppliers.
