India’s crude oil imports during September 2025 again reflected its preference for heavy middle distillates with Russia and Middle East accounting for more than three-fourths of the cumulative cargoes shipped into the country.

Numbers from global real time data and analytics provider Kpler puts Russian barrels at the top, accounting for almost 34 per cent of the cages procured by the world’s third largest importer. Share of traditional suppliers, Middle East, stood at a little over 44 per cent.

India largely imports medium sour grades from these two regions, which favours its refinery structure that is more suited to heavy distillates such as diesel and jet fuel.

For light sweet grades, India balanced the cargoes between Africa and the US. While Nigeria accounted for almost 5 per cent o

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