MOSCOW (MRC) - Venezuela's crude shipments to India, its third largest export market, fell 21 percent in the first half of the year, according to internal documents from state-run PDVSA, adding to supply troubles for Indian refiners as they are increasingly pressed to diversify oil imports, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.
Venezuela's production decline to a 30-year low and export woes stemming from mismanagement, lack of investment and payment delays are affecting almost all of the OPEC-nation's customers.
But the impact on India is notable and comes as its refiners are now preparing for a "drastic reduction to zero" of oil imports from U.S.-sanctioned Iran.
Last week, PDVSA officials met with executives from India's Reliance Industries and Russia's Rosneft, which owns a majority stake in India-based Nayara Energy, to discuss trade issues, the state-run company said.
The talks focused on how to remedy export delays, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Venezuela sent almost 280,000 barrels per day (bpd) of heavy crude to India in the first half of the year, a 21 percent drop versus the 355,500 bpd shipped in the same period of 2017, according to PDVSA trade documents.
The decline is the second steepest after the United States, which has suffered a drop of about 30 percent in crude imports from Venezuela this year, the documents seen by Reuters show.
MRC