Saudi Arabia’s historic comeback! Russia defeated in oil game, tankers reaching India in February set a record

India Oil Imports February 2026: After the US ban on Russian oil, India has reduced purchases from Moscow. At the same time, imports from Saudi Arabia have increased. India’s crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia have reached their highest level in February. This is the highest since November 2019. According to the Times of India, it stood at around 1 to 1.1 million barrels per day (bpd) in February. During this period, Saudi Arabia temporarily overtook Russia to become India’s largest oil supplier.

According to global data and analytics service provider Kpler, on February 20 (Friday), crude oil imports from the West Asian country reached 1.3 million barrels. This was much more than Russia’s supply of about 1.1 mbd. For the last few years, Saudi Arabia has been at the third or fourth position in India’s crude oil imports. Russia has always been on top, while Iraq and UAE have been the other two major suppliers.

Russian supply reduced by half

After the attack on Ukraine, India had increased the purchase of oil from Russia, due to which this gap had increased. After Russia’s attack on Ukraine in 2022, India became a major buyer of Russian crude oil. At that time, Russian oil was getting huge discounts due to the sanctions of western countries. At its peak, India was importing about 2 million bpd of Russian crude oil. But according to Kpler, oil supply from Russia is expected to further reduce to between 8 lakh and 10 lakh bpd next month. These figures have come at a time when America is pressurizing India to reduce the purchase of crude oil from Russia.

the difference is quite small

The recent surge Saudi Arabia and Russia The gap between has been reduced significantly. “We expect some reduction in the coming weeks, as some shipments may arrive in early March,” said Sumit Ritolia, lead research analyst at Kpler. On a full-month basis, we estimate that imports from Saudi Arabia will average around 1 to 1.1 mbd in February, which is a multi-year high.’ He said that crude oil import from Russia is expected to be 1 to 1.2 mbd in February and it may come down to 0.8 to 1 mbd per day next month.

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According to analysts, imports from Russia are expected to decline further in April as Naira’s Vadodara refinery, which is heavily dependent on Russian crude, is scheduled to be closed for maintenance in April-May following EU sanctions.