India buys more oil from Russia, less from Iraq, Saudi Arabia in April

India in April imported more Russian oil but less from Iraq and Saudi Arabia than it did a month earlier, preliminary data from trade flow tracking agencies Kpler and LSEG shows.

Refiners in India have been snapping up Russian oil since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 prompted the West to shun it and impose sanctions.

Russia remained India's top oil supplier in April followed by Iraq and Saudi Arabia, the data showed.

The world's third biggest oil importer and consumer, India raised purchases in April by 13-17% compared to previous months, the data shows.

Its oil imports from Iraq declined by 20-23%, the data showed.

In May its imports of Russian oil are expected to decline to 1.1 million barrels per day from 1.75 million bpd in April, LSEG data showed.