Russia’s portion of India’s oil import value reached an 11-month peak near 38 percent in April 2026, reflecting greater reliance amid the West Asia situation. This shift coincided with a 425 percent increase in the premium Russia charged, reversing earlier discounts. In volume terms, Russia supplied about 34 percent of India’s crude imports that month, while U.S. supplies dropped to multi-month lows in both value and volume. Total Indian oil imports recovered to 195.3 lakh tonnes in April after falling to 158.5 lakh tonnes in March. Although volume rose 23 percent from the prior month, higher prices lifted the import bill 61.3 percent to 15.4 billion dollars. Russian volumes reached nearly 67 lakh tonnes, or 34.3 percent of the total. The value of Russian oil imports hit 5.8 billion dollars, equaling 37.7 percent of the overall bill. India paid 864.9 dollars per tonne for Russian crude versus an average of 787.1 dollars per tonne from all sources, resulting in a 77.8-dollar premium per tonne, up 425 percent from March. U.S. oil accounted for just 2.9 percent of the bill and 3.8 percent by value, both eight-month lows.
