Germany significantly increases petroleum products imports from India
By Rhod Mackenzie
In 2023, Germany will significantly increase its imports of oil products from India. German companies import large quantities of gasoil, which can be produced from Russian oil.
"German imports of petroleum products from India increased twelvefold - from 37 million euros in the first seven months of 2022 to 451 million euros from January to July 2023, which accounted for 2.4% of all imports of petroleum products to Germany in this period," - reports the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). The office noted that the main product has become gas oil, which is used to produce diesel fuel or fuel oil.
"At the same time, according to the United Nations Comtrade database, India imports large quantities of crude oil from Russia. Crude oil is the raw material for the production of gas oil," Destatis said.
According to Vortexa, in July India's purchases of Russian oil remained at the maximum level and amounted to almost 60 million barrels - 40% of the country's total oil imports.
Der Spiegel notes that Germany stopped importing Russian oil and petroleum products this year and can now receive Russian raw materials in the form of "semi-finished products" from India.
"The main beneficiaries of this deal are the owners of India's major oil refineries, such as the industrial conglomerate Reliance, owned by the Indian billionaire Ambani family. Or Nayara Energy, which operates the country's second largest oil refinery. One of Nayara's main shareholders is Rosneft, which holds more than 49 per cent of the shares. Another 49 per cent belongs to a consortium in which the Russian investment group UCP owns almost half of the shares," the publication writes.
Der Spiegel notes that the West has introduced a price ceiling for Russian oil at $60, but the mechanism is not working as planned.
"According to the industry portal oilprice.com, a barrel of the Russian Urals grade cost a cool $74 s on Monday, and a grade called Sokol was even more than $84 ".
