India's crude oil imports from the volatile Middle East region increased 11 per cent to 89.73 million tonnes in 2007-08 with Saudi Arabia being the single largest supplier to Asia's third largest oil consumer.
Of the 121.67 million tonnes of crude oil imported in 2007- 08, 73.74 per cent came from the Middle East region, according to data available from the Petroleum Ministry.
Of the total import of 111.5 million tonnes in 2006-07, the region sold 80.81 million tonnes of oil.
Saudi Arabia shipped 26.98 million tonnes of oil to India in 2007-08, up 9.58 per cent from the previous year's 24.62 million tonnes.
India spent Rs 2,72,699 crore or $67.988 billion on its crude imports in 2007-08, up from Rs 2,19,029 crore or $48.389 billion in the previous year.
Iran was the second biggest supplier with 19.48 million tonnes and Iraq gave 14.29 million tonnes in 2007-08. Imports from Iran swelled from 14.7 million tonnes in the previous year.
Outside the Middle East region, Nigeria was the biggest exporter at 9.91 million tonnes, though the volumes from the African nation were down from 13.06 million tonnes in 2006-07.
Angola followed Nigeria with oil exports to India almost doubling in 2007-08 to 4.33 million tonnes.
Kuwait's oil supplies to India declined to 10.3 million tonnes in fiscal 2008, down by 10.48 per cent from the previous year's 11.38 million tonnes.
India's oil import from the United Arab Emirates in fiscal 2008 stood at 10.86 million tonnes, up 24.11 per cent from 8.75 million tonnes in the year-ago period.
