India’s oil imports from UAE rises

In a sign of increasing concentration of India’s oil supplies and its limited options to source from, the latest data shows that more than two-thirds of the country’s oil imports came from just three countries — Russia, the US, and the UAE — marking a record-high share.

Notably, Russia’s share in India’s oil imports fell to around 44% in August 2026, the latest month for which official data is available, from a historic high of 51% in July.

The data shows that c surged in August, with American oil coming at a substantial premium compared to the average price India paid for oil imports.

India’s total oil imports stood at 191.2 lakh tonnes in August 2026, down 10.3% from July but up 3.4% from August last year. However, higher oil prices meant India’s oil import bill was nearly 25% higher in August this year than in the same month last year.

Within this, Russian oil accounted for 84.8 lakh tonnes of Indian oil imports, or 44.3% of the total. In India’s $12.2 billion oil import bill in August 2026, payments to Russia accounted for 44.5%.

That said, India imported 23% less oil from Russia in August 2026 than in July, although this figure was still 22.5% higher than in August last year.

India’s elevated oil imports from Russia have been a sore point in its relations with the US and President Donald Trump, who in September signed into law an Act that could levy tariffs of up to 100% on countries that import large amounts of Russian oil and gas, as India does.

Meanwhile, India’s oil imports from the US once again surged in August 2026 to 9.7 lakh tonnes, making up 5.1% of India’s total oil imports that month. In quantity, this was nearly 82% higher than in July and more than 130% higher than in August last year.

The data also shows that India paid an average of $810.6 per tonne for U.S. oil, much higher than the average price of $640 per tonne it paid across all its oil imports in August. U.S. oil has been costlier than average since June 2026.