India elevated imports of Saudi oil in December as cost issues drove its Russian oil buys to an 11-month low, with at the least 5 cargoes of the candy Sokol variant heading to different places, knowledge from vessel monitoring companies confirmed.

Indian Oil Company (IOC), which was set to get the Sokol oil, needed to withdraw from its stock and purchase from West Asia to make up the shortfall, sources advised Reuters final month. IOC is the one state-run agency with an annual deal to purchase a number of grades of Russian oil, together with Sokol, from oil main Rosneft.

India’s oil imports from Russia in December declined 16%-22%, based mostly on Reuters calculation of information gleaned from circulation monitoring companies Vortexa, Kpler and LSEG. Its imports of Saudi oil, rose by about 4%, nonetheless, knowledge from Kpler and Vortexa confirmed. LSEG knowledge reveals India’s month-to-month Russian oil imports declining by 22% to 1.21 million barrels per day (bpd) in December, whereas Kpler reveals a drop of 16% to 1.39 million bpd.

“Maybe it’s nonetheless too early to write down off India’s urge for food for the Sakhalin grade (Sokol),” mentioned Viktor Katona, lead crude analyst at Kpler, including that three new Sokol cargoes on the NS Antarctic, Jaguar and Vostochny Prospect had been heading for India. Aframax ships NS Century, NS Commander, Sakhalin Island, Lityny Prospect and Krymsk; and a really massive crude service Nellis carrying Russian Sokol oil for IOC had been crusing for the Strait of Malacca, Kpler and LSEG ship monitoring knowledge confirmed.

The NS Century confronted sanctions imposed by the US in November 2023 for the sale of Russian oil at a worth above the cap of $60 a barrel fastened by the G7 grouping of countries and had been floating close to Colombo since. “China seems to be the ultimate answer for some cargoes,” mentioned Katona.