US sanctions effect: Iraq gains lost ground as oil exporter to India, fast closing gap with Russia
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi: Rebalancing its oil import basket of the last three-four years, India is slowly yet surely moving away from the Russia Federation and turning back to its traditional crude oil suppliers in West Asia. In doing so, Iraq, the no.
1 crude exporter to India from fiscal 2018 until FY2022 when the Ukraine war began, is back as a strong force in the Indian oil market and fast catching up with Russian supplies, latest data shows. Russian oil imports have been falling since recent US sanctions on two of its biggest exporters. Iraq supplied 1.06 million barrels of oil daily (mbpd) in the first month of 2026 (until 20 January) as compared to 1.10 mbpd from Russia, according to Kpler, a market intelligence provider for commodities, energy, and maritime sectors.
This comes in the backdrop of refiners in India, the world's third largest oil buying nation, cutting back on Russian oil imports after US sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil late in October 2025 in spite of discounts of up to $8 per barrel on offer. Such discounts, at a high of $30 a barrel in 2022, had China and India becoming the top buyers of Russian oil. In FY25, Russian oil comprised about 35% of India's crudeimports compared to about 2.5% prior to the Ukraine war.
In FY22, Iraq accounted for about 26% of India's oil imports before it was dislodged from the top spot by Russia. India imports nearly 90% of its oil requirement totalling to some $161 billion last fiscal. This momentum of growing imports is likely to continue with growing consumption projected at a record 252.9 million metric tonnes in FY26, according to India’s petroleum and natural gas ministry’s Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell.
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