-- The share of Middle Eastern oil within India's supply plummeted to a record low of 26.3% in March following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, according to a Reuters analysis published Tuesday citing shipping data.
Total imports for the world's third-largest consumer fell 13% month-on-month to 4.5 million barrels per day, the report said.
With the US and Iran effectively blocking the waterway, traditional suppliers like Iraq and the United Arab Emirates saw shipments to India fall to multi-year lows, it said.
Despite recent efforts to diversify toward Washington-backed trade deals, the blockade forced India to pivot back to Russia whose oil it had been largely avoiding to prevent imposition of US tariffs on imports of Indian goods.
Imports from Moscow nearly doubled from February levels to 2.25 million bpd, now accounting for half of India's total monthly intake, the report said.