*India cemented its position as the world’s number three crude importer for 2021. Volumes rose by 9% to 4.30mn b/d from 2020’s 5-year low of 3.94mn b/d (MEES, 29 January 2021), but they were still more than 200,000 b/d down on the annual record of 4.51mn b/d set in 2018 (see chart 1 and table for full data).