During those six months, New Delhi bought from Moscow an average of 1.76 million barrels a day, which is more than twice the volume of supplies in the same period of the previous year.

The share of Russian crude in Indian imports reached 40 percent, at a time when there was a decline in purchases from the Middle East, reducing OPEC’s share of India’s total imports to the lowest level in 22 years.

There was also a decline in oil imports from Iraq and Saudi Arabia, which are among India’s top three suppliers. In April-September, the volume of oil imported from Iraq fell to 928,000 barrels a day, and from Saudi Arabia to 607,500 barrels a day.

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