India's March Oil Imports Fall 1.7%: Report

New Delhi: India's oil imports in March fell 1.7 per cent from a year ago while shipments in the fiscal year to March rose 5.6 per cent as the country expanded its refining capacity, tanker arrival data obtained from trade sources and compiled by Thomson Reuters Analytics showed. 

India shipped in about 4.07 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil in March, a decline of about 12 per cent from the previous month, the data showed. 

India, Iran's biggest oil client after China, shippped in slightly more than 500,000 bpd of oil from Tehran, the highest in at least five years. 

Iranian oil accounted for about 6.2 per cent of New Delhi's overall imports in the last fiscal year with the Persian Gulf nation improving its ranking by a notch to emerge as the sixth biggest oil supplier to New Delhi. 

The share of Middle East and African oil in India's overall purchases rose in 2015/16 while that of Latin America declined marginally as refiners stepped up cheaper, heavier barrels from nearby countries to save on freight costs, the data showed.

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