Story Brief

Natalia Katona is a freelance commodity analyst, based in the United Arab Emirates. India’s crude imports fell in August, and Russia’s declined with them, exposing a supply problem that seasonal refinery patterns alone cannot explain. The usual maintenance period at Indian plants comes toward the end of the monsoon, when domestic diesel and gasoline demand typically eases, but most refiners have largely postponed this year’s work because the current market crisis has produced strong margins on refined products. Demand has also remained unusually resilient.

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