Russia surpasses UAE as India's top naphtha supplier amid discounts

Russia has overtaken the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to become India's top naphtha supplier, data shows, as New Delhi takes advantage of discounted Russian oil products and the re-routing of trade flows in the aftermath of Moscow's Ukraine invasion.

The nearby UAE had long been India's top source of imported naphtha, used to manufacture petrochemicals that end up as plastics and polyester fibres, while India previously bought little Russian naphtha because of high logistical costs.

But this year, discounted Russian supplies in the aftermath of the EU's sanctions on Moscow's fuel imports as well as the higher cost of natural gas, an alternative feedstock for petrochemical makers, has found eager naphtha buyers among bargain-hunting Indian plants.

India shipped in 2.1 million metric tons of naphtha in January-September, Vortexa data showed, of which 37 per cent or 770,000 tons were Russian origin product, compared with 154,000 tons for all of 2022.

By comparison, Vortexa said naphtha supplies to India from the UAE dipped to 686,000 tons in January-September from about 697,000 tonnes in the first nine months of last year.

LSEG data showed about 750,000 tons of Russian naphtha imports by India in the first nine months of 2023, up from only around 185,000 tons in all of 2022 and one or two small parcels in 2019 and 2017.

The LSEG showed India imported about 670,000 tons of naphtha from the UAE in January to September, down from around 726,000 tons in the same period last year.

Despite this year's surge in buying, India ranks only seventh among importers of Russian naphtha, according to data from ship-tracker Kpler, and is itself a major naphtha producer and exporter.

Most of the Russian naphtha was imported by Reliance Industries, operator of the world's largest oil refining complex, according to LSEG and Kpler data. Reliance started buying naphtha from Russia in September last year and the volume increased after imposition of the fuel price cap by western nations and the EU embargo, ship-tracking data showed.

Another petrochemical producer, HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd (HMEL), has been using naphtha instead of natural gas because of higher gas prices at its cracker in Bathinda, which can produce 1.2 million tons per year of petrochemicals, that was commissioned in the first quarter, said a source at HMEL.

"It (Russian naphtha) is definitely cheaper than UAE and hence it makes economic sense to buy from them," the source said.

Kpler data showed HMEL imported about 186,000 tons of naphtha this year at the port of Mundra in western India from the Russian ports of Ust Luga and Sheskharis. LSEG data showed about 207,000 tons of Russian naphtha landed at Mundra.

HMEL's communication office did not respond to Reuters' request for a comment.

India's naphtha imports are expected to rise further as new petrochemical projects are commissioned and planned refinery maintenance boosts demand for blending with gasoline, analysts and traders said.

Asia's third-largest economy is forecast to triple petrochemical consumption by 2040 to 80 million tons per year.