April crude imports dip 4.3% year-on-year, but oil bill jumps over 50% on price surge

NEW DELHI: The measurement of crude purchased by India successful April this twelvemonth fell by 4.3% compared with the aforesaid play past year, but the import measure surged by much than 50% owed to a crisp emergence successful planetary lipid prices, provisional information compiled by govt’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell showed.

India imported 20.1 cardinal tonnes (MT) of crude successful April this twelvemonth and paid $16.3 cardinal for it, compared with 21 MT purchased for $10.7 cardinal successful the aforesaid period past year. Crude prices surged astir 70% betwixt April 2025 and April 2026, with the Indian lipid handbasket averaging $114.48 per tube this twelvemonth against $67.72 per tube successful 2025. As LPG supplies from West Asia remained restricted owed to the warfare and disruption successful the cardinal commercialized way done the Strait of Hormuz, Indian refineries ramped up accumulation by 30% — from 1 cardinal tonne (MT) successful April 2025 to 1.3 MT successful the archetypal period of this fiscal.

Consumption, however, declined from 2.5 MT to 2.2 MT during the period, arsenic proviso was regulated done transportation authentication codes, oregon OTPs, and the booking play for refills was accrued to 25 days successful municipality areas and 45 days successful agrarian areas.

Imports of liquefied earthy state (LNG), which is utilized to nutrient automobile substance CNG and cooking state PNG, fell by astir 30% — from 2,778 cardinal metric modular cubic metres (mmscm) successful April 2025 to 1,954 mmscm this year. Domestic accumulation besides declined from 2,908 mmscm to 2,787 mmscm. With LNG supplies constrained, companies sourced cargoes from Nigeria, Angola, Oman and Indonesia. Total earthy state depletion successful April 2026 stood astatine 4,703 mmscm, 16.7% little than successful the corresponding period of the erstwhile year.