Commodity Online
NEW DELHI : India’s oil imports from the Middle East increased to 89.73 million tones in 2007-08, up by 11 percent, compared to 80.81 million tones in 2006-07, according to Petroleum Ministry.

India, Asia’s third largest oil consumer after Japan and China, imported 121.67 million tones of crude oil during 2007-08 of which 73.74 percent came from the Middle East with Saudi Arabia being the single largest supplier.

Of the total import of 111.5 million tones in 2006-07, the region sold 80.81 million tones of oil. Saudi Arabia shipped 26.98 million tones of oil to India in 2007-08, up 9.58 per cent from the previous year's 24.62 million tones.

The Ministry said, 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 tones in 2007-08. Imports from Iran swelled from 14.7 million tonnes in the previous year, said the Ministry.

Outside the Middle East region, Nigeria was the biggest exporter at 9.9 1 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 tons 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 tons, up 24.11 per cent from 8.75 million tons in the year-ago period