181Above all, for the past two decades Saudi Arabia has been among the top
five crude oil suppliers to India and since 2006–07 has been its largest sup-
plier (Table 9.6).
The growth in the export of petroleum products, in turn, has contributed
to the increase in India’s total crude oil imports. The increase in oil imports
is influenced not only by growing domestic consumption but also by the
appetite of its refining capacity (Table 9.6). Correspondingly one could
notice an increase in India’s petroleum product exports to Saudi Arabia;
from a meagre US$0.94 million in 1996–97 it rose to US$6.9 billion in
2013–14 (Table 9.7). Since then there has been a decline and it dropped to
US$530 million in 2016–17. This is largely due to falling oil prices, though
it still makes up nearly 10 per cent of India’s exports to the Kingdom.
At the same time, energy imports are responsible not only for India’s
massive trade imbalance vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia but also for the skewed
nature of the bilateral trade. Indeed, India’s imports were almost exclusively
Table 9.5 Share of energy in India’s foreign trade (in US$ million)
Year Energy exports Total exports Share Energy imports Total imports Share1996–97 516.43 33,469.95 1.54 11464.58 39,132.41 29.29
1997–98 394.51 34,784.98 1.13 10,067.73 41,484.49 24.27
1998–99 141.07 33,218.72 0.42 8043.17 42,388.71 18.97
1999–2000 90.86 36,822.49 0.24 14,350.16 49,738.06 28.85
2000–01 1930.98 44,560.29 4.33 17,545.13 50,536.45 34.72
2001–02 2182.93 43,826.72 4.98 15,771.74 51,413.28 30.68
2002–03 2707.21 52,719.43 5.13 19,680.59 61412.14 32.04
2003–04 3734.28 63,842.55 5.85 22,700.20 78,149.11 29.04
2004–05 7140.36 83,535.94 8.55 34,818.64 111,517.43 31.22
2005–06 11,866.56 103,090.53 11.51 50,310.05 149,165.73 33.73
2006–07 18,859.44 126,414.05 14.92 61,778.87 185,735.24 33.26
2007–08 29,085.43 163,132.18 17.83 86,384.04 251,654.01 34.33
2008–09 28,437.09 185,295.36 15.35 103,933.77 303,696.31 34.22
2009–10 29,036.24 178,751.43 16.24 96,321.12 288,372.88 33.40
2010–11 42,735.89 249,815.55 17.11 115,929.02 369.769.13 31.35
2011–12 57,391.88 305,963.92 18.76 172,753.93 489,319.49 35.30
2012–13 62,105.45 300,400.58 20.67 181,344.63 490,736.65 36.95
2013–14 64,685.27 314,405.30 20.57 181,382.56 450,199.79 40.29
2014–15 57,619.99 310,338.48 18.57 156,399.98 448,033.41 34.91
2015–16 31,231.49 262,290.13 11.90 96,953.02 381,006.63 25.45
2016–17 32,277.00 276.280.29 11.68 103,068.9 384,319.29 26.82Source: Directorate General of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India
ENERGY, ECONOMICS AND EXPATRIATES