Russia becomes India’s second Biggest oil Exporter

Current Context: As per a recent report Russia rose to become India's second-biggest supplier of oil in May, pushing Saudi Arabia into third place.

During May Indian refiners received about 819,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Russian oil, the highest compared to about 277,00 in April.
It accounted for about 16.5% of India's overall oil imports in May, whereas in the case of the Middle East declined to about 59.5%.
Western sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine provided Russian crude to record discounts against other grades.
This provided Indian refiners, an opportunity to purchase crude oil at low prices.
Apart from that India's oil imports in May were about 5.6% up from the previous month and about 19% from last year.
Higher oil imports from Russia curbed OPEC's share in India's overall imports to 65% in April.