According to Banchero Costa, “in terms of demand (measured by arrival at discharge ports), the top seaborne importer of crude oil in Jan-Jun 2026 was Mainland China, accounting for 20.5% of global trade. Volumes into China decreased by -14.2% y-o-y to 209.5 mln t in JanJun 2026, from 244.1 mln t in JanJun 2025. Imports into the EU27 up by +1.7% y-o-y to 227.6 mln t, accounting for 22.3% of global trade. To South Korea, imports declined by -18.5% y-o-y to 56.7 mln t. To Japan, imports fell by -22.5% y-o-y to 44.1 mln t in Jan-Jun 2026. Imports into the USA up by +8.9% yo-y to 62.8 mln t in Jan-Jun 2026”.
“India is now again the world’s fourth largest seaborne importer of crude oil, after the EU, China, and ASEAN. India accounted for 11.7% of global crude oil trade in Jan-Jun 2026. Seaborne imports to India increased by +2.4% y-o-y in Jan-Dec 2023 to 228.1 mln t, and then by +2.5% y-o-y in Jan-Dec 2024 to 233.4 mln t, and then by +2.5% y-o-y in Jan-Dec 2025 to 239.4 mln t. In Jan-Jun 2026, crude imports into India edged down -0.3% y-o-y to 119.4 mln t, from 119.7 mln t in JanJun 2025. About 48% of crude oil volumes discharged in India in Jan-Jun 2026 were carried in VLCCs, about 30% were carried in Suezmaxes, and about 22% in Aframaxes”, the shipbroker said.
Banchero Costa added that “top crude discharge ports in India in Jan-Jun 2026 were Jamnagar (31.6 mln tonnes of crude oil in Jan-Jun 2026), Vadinar (25.3 mln t), Paradip (16.4 mln t), Mundra (10.9 mln t), Mumbai (9.1 mln t), Cochin (7.7 mln t), Visakhapatnam (6.2 mln t), New Mangalore (5.9 mln t), Chennai (4.7 mln t). In terms of sources of the shipments, there has been understandably a bit of politically driven reshuffling in recent years. Seaborne imports from Russian ports (which include both oil of Russian origin and oil of non-Russian origin such as Kazakh oil) rose from just 4.1 mln t in 2021 to a peak of 82.0 mln t in 2024, before easing to 79.5 mln t in 2025. In Jan-Jun 2026 they edged up by +1.8% y-o-y to 41.7 mln t”.
Meanwhile, “Russian ports remained the second largest source of seaborne oil to India, accounting for 35.0% of volumes in Jan-Jun 2026, now only modestly behind the Arabian Gulf with 39.5%, with West Africa in third place at 8.3% and the USA at 3.6%. Shipments from the Arabian Gulf to India fell by -13.3% y-o-y in Jan-Jun 2026 to 47.2 mln t, but the picture varied widely by country. Saudi Arabia remained India’s largest Gulf supplier at 15.1 mln t, or 12.6% of total Indian imports, broadly flat at -2.0% y-o-y. The UAE jumped by +37.9% y-o-y to 13.4 mln t (11.2%), overtaking Iraq to become India’s second largest Gulf supplier, while Oman rose sharply to 4.1 mln t, from just 0.7 mln t a year earlier. Iraqi volumes, by contrast, collapsed by -59.3% y-o-y to 9.8 mln t, while Kuwait fell by -32.6% to 2.4 mln t, with smaller contributions from Qatar (1.9 mln t) and Iran (0.6 mln t). Shipments from West Africa to India surged by +31.5% y-o-y in Jan-Jun 2026 to 9.9 mln t. Imports from the USA decreased by -35.2% y-o-y in Jan-Jun 2026 to 4.3 mln t”, the shipbroker concluded.
Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide
