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The import of crude oil came down by 15.3 million tonnes during the first seven months of 2020 because of the Covid pandemic and the lockdown in the country.
India imported 115.5 million tonnes of crude during January-July of 2020 as against 130.8 million tonnes in the corresponding period of 2019, according to a reply to an unstarred question in Lok Sabha.
The reply tabled in Lok Sabha said that the event of Covid-19 resulted in lockdown with an increasing supply of crude oil in the international market. Taking advantage of the low crude oil prices, India purchased 16.71 million barrels of crude in April-May of 2020 and filled all the three strategic petroleum reserves at Vishakhapatnam, Mangaluru and Padur (Udupi district of Karnataka). The average cost of procurement was $19 a barrel as compared to $60 a barrel prevailing during January 2020, thus saving $685.11 million. This amounts to ₹5069 crore at an exchange rate of ₹74 per USD, it said.
The average price of Indian basket of crude oil, which stood at $64.31 a barrel in January 2020, came down to $19.90 a barrel in April 2020. The average price of Indian basket of crude oil stood at $44.19 a barrel in August.
The value of crude oil imported stood at $35.4 billion (₹2,59,751 crore) during January-July 2020 as against $61.3 billion (₹4,27,350 crore) during the corresponding period of 2019.
Find out more details on the movement of crude oil prices and the quantity imported in these interactive data visualisations.
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