HSN Chapter 27 (Mineral fuels & oils) import/export evaluated product-wise against the price
benchmarks that drive Indian pricing — and mapped to OilPrice API coverage. Trade in US$; FY2018-19 → 2025-26.
India Mineral-Oil Trade × Pricing Dashboard
Trade: DGCI&S / TRADESTAT (HSN 2-digit)
Product split & prices: PPAC Ready Reckoner
Pricing formula: Rangarajan 2006 · Expert Group 2013 · TERI
Gas: Kirit Parikh 2023
✓ Consistency checks 20/20 passed
$203.4B
Ch.27 imports FY25-26 (26.2% of all imports)
$55.9B
Ch.27 exports FY25-26
121.1 MMT
Crude imported (FY25-26 H1)
4 / 11
POL items with an OilPrice benchmark (2 partial, 5 none)
80 : 20
Trade Parity Price = IPP : EPP weight
🟢 Live EIA spot benchmark
Pulled live from the EIA API — replaces the dead OilPrice feed. US Gulf Coast + crude benchmarks; directional proxy, not India FOB / Platts AG.
1 · HSN Chapter 27 — the mineral-oil trade balance
Exports vs imports (US$ Billion)
Chapter 27 is India's single largest import chapter and a major export earner. Structural net importer.
Chapter 27 share of total imports
Share tracks the crude price cycle — peaks in FY22-23 (oil spike), eases as prices soften.
2 · Product-level POL trade (PPAC) — where petrol, diesel, LPG & lube sit
Import vs export value by product
India imports crude & LPG (deficit products) and exports refined petrol/diesel/naphtha/ATF — the classic refining-hub pattern. Pick a year.
Import value US$BExport value US$B
3 · Trade values vs price benchmark — the bridge
Crude: realized import unit-value vs Indian basket
Implied $/bbl from trade value÷quantity tracks the Indian basket within ±6% every year — the core consistency check.
Product unit values (US$/tonne)
Import vs export realized unit value. Divergence = grade/quality & timing vs the Platts benchmark. Pick a product.
4 · The pricing formula — how commodities set Indian prices
Refinery Gate Price of sensitive products (MS, HSD), since 2006:
TPP = 0.80 × IPP + 0.20 × EPP| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| IPP | FOB price + Ocean freight + Insurance + Customs duty + Port charges (what an importer pays at an Indian port) |
| EPP | FOB price + Advance-license benefit + … (≈ FOB export realisation) |
| Retail | RGP/RTP + Inland freight & delivery + Marketing cost & margin + Dealer commission + Excise + VAT |
FOB = daily Platts (Argus for kero) Arab-Gulf product quotes, prior-fortnight/month average + premium.
| Product | Benchmark commodity that sets the price |
|---|---|
| Crude | Indian basket — 78.71% Oman+Dubai (sour) + 21.29% Brent |
| Petrol (MS) | FOB Gasoline Arab Gulf / Singapore (Platts) |
| Diesel (HSD) | FOB Gasoil 0.05%S Arab Gulf (Platts) |
| ATF / Kerosene | FOB Jet/Kero Arab Gulf (Platts/Argus) |
| LPG | Saudi Aramco CP — Butane 60% + Propane 40% + Platts Gaswire premium |
| Fuel Oil | FOB Fuel Oil 180/380 cSt Arab Gulf/Singapore (Platts) |
Worked examples from primary price-build-up documents.
PDS Kerosene, Mumbai (Mar-16): FOB AG Jet/Kero $40.26/bbl → IPP ₹18.10/L → total cost ₹20.13/L → RSP ₹15.24/L (under-recovery ₹4.89/L).
· Domestic LPG, Delhi (Mar-16): FOB AG LPG $305.95/MT → IPP ₹326.40/cyl → market ₹513.50/cyl → subsidised effective ₹419.13/cyl.
· Gas (Kirit Parikh 2023): APM gas sloped to the same Indian crude basket, floor $4 / ceiling $6.5 per MMBtu (+$0.5/yr), difficult fields cap $12.46 — one crude commodity anchors crude, LPG, MS, HSD and gas.
5 · HSN item → India benchmark → OilPrice API coverage
Which mineral-oil lines the OilPrice API can actually price
The API (this plan) has crude, gasoline, diesel, jet & marine fuels — but no LPG, naphtha, base-oil/lube, bitumen or petcoke, and no history (spot only). So it proxies ~half the complex; the Platts/Saudi-CP benchmarks in column 3 are the real anchors.
| Product | HSN | India pricing benchmark | OilPrice proxy | Coverage |
|---|
6 · Commodity-import pricing checklist (India, current rules)
How to price a commodity import into India — step by step
The landed-cost stack a trader must build before quoting. Duty rates change by notification — verify on CBIC/ICEGATE before costing a real cargo.
| Step | What to do |
|---|
Worked duty stack — Base oil (HSN 2710 1971), CIF ₹100
BCD 5% = ₹5.00 · AIDC 5% on CIF = ₹5.00 · SWS 10% on (BCD+AIDC) = ₹1.00 · IGST 18% on (CIF+duties) = ₹19.98 →
BCD 5% = ₹5.00 · AIDC 5% on CIF = ₹5.00 · SWS 10% on (BCD+AIDC) = ₹1.00 · IGST 18% on (CIF+duties) = ₹19.98 →
Effective 30.98%. FTA origin: Japan 0% BCD · UAE 2% · Australia 1% → materially lower.GST split matters. Base oil, LPG, lubricants, naphtha, bitumen, petcoke sit inside GST (IGST 18% on import). Crude, petrol, diesel, ATF & natural gas are outside GST — Central Excise + State VAT/CST apply instead, and their refinery-gate price is set by the Trade Parity formula, not a simple duty add-on.
7 · Segment picker — where the import/export margin is
Profitable segments (PPAC FY2024-25 values + TRADESTAT orientation)
India's refining-hub signature: export refined MS/HSD/ATF/naphtha; import crude, LPG, base oil, petcoke, bitumen. The value-add play is importing base oil to export finished lubricants.
| Segment | Export $B | Import $B | Orientation | Trader verdict | Key risk |
|---|
Export-surplus segments = sell India's refined output
Import-deficit segments = source/distribute or import-substitute
8 · Country-wise mineral-oil trade (top partners)
Chapter 27 by partner — imports vs exports (US$B)
Russia dominates the import bill (discounted crude); UAE & USA are two-way; China is where India sells refined product. FY2025-26.
What each relationship is
| Partner | Import $B | Export $B | Role in the mineral-oil trade |
|---|
9 · Opportunity — UCO import → SAF export to the UK
The value-add feedstock arbitrage
Not plain UCO import for domestic use (India is a discount market) — the margin is in converting feedstock to certified SAF for the UK/EU mandate premium.
UK SAF Mandate
Price signal
The play
| What has to hold |
|---|
Verdict.
10 · Net-export commodities → where to sell them
India's petroleum-product export destinations
Europe leads (Netherlands ≈25% of the total); Africa is now the largest & fastest-growing regional buyer. US$B, Apr-2023→Jan-2024.
Net-export products & target markets
The four products where India is structurally long — and the countries the surplus can move to.
| Product | Net $B | Best targets |
|---|
Target-country detail
| Product (HSN) | Where it can go | Read |
|---|
11 · Export margin ranking (implied crack over crude, 8-digit HS)
Margin per tonne — export unit value − crude cost (FY25-26)
Computed from 8-digit TRADESTAT value + quantity files (crude ≈$519/t). Bar = crack $/t; ATF & specialty oils out-margin diesel per tonne, but diesel's volume wins the pool.
Ranked table — margin quality & total pool
Per-tonne crack = margin quality; pool ($/t × volume) = total earnings. Ranked by crack/tonne.
| # | HS-8 / line | Crack $/t | % | Pool $M |
|---|
12 · Trader destination playbook — buy ex-refinery, sell abroad
Where each product fetches the best netback
| Buy (product) | Best sell-to destinations | Why / how | Avoid / watch |
|---|
Shortlist.
13 · Trade opportunity matrix — both directions, by Indian port
Good trades: export India's surplus & source India's deficit
EXPORT direction (sell surplus — refining margin)IMPORT direction (source deficit — volume)
| Export · product (HS) | Size | Sell to | Indian ports | Trade angle | Risk |
|---|
| Import · product (HS) | Size | Source from | Indian ports | Trade angle | Risk |
|---|
14 · Movement & margin-realisation check (2025-26 market data)
Are the high-margin products actually moving to these destinations?
| Destination | Flow | Recent movement (confirmed) |
|---|
Realised margin vs the estimate
| Product | Dashboard estimate | Recent market (2025-26) | Verdict |
|---|
15 · 8-digit HS net-trade leaders (verified TRADESTAT)
Top net-EXPORT lines (US$M, FY25-26)
Straight from the TRADESTAT EIDB 8-digit workbook. Diesel, petrol & ATF dominate. 8-digit Ch.27 sums reconcile to the 2-digit totals at 0.00%.
| HS-8 | Commodity | Net $M | Exp growth |
|---|
Top net-IMPORT lines (US$M, FY25-26)
Crude ($134.7B) dwarfs all; then LNG, coal, LPG (propane+butane ≈$13B) and base oil ($2.6B — matches PPAC).
| HS-8 | Commodity | Net $M |
|---|
16 · Beyond petroleum — high-value export segments & import-vs-export price
Other high-value export segments (TRADESTAT 8-digit)
| Segment | Export $M | Net $M | Unit value | Growth | Read |
|---|
Value-add: export price > import price
Buy the cheaper input grade, export the higher-value good. Ratio = export unit price ÷ import unit price.
| HS · good | Imp/u | Exp/u | × | Read |
|---|
Import-premium: import price > export price
India imports the dear/branded grade, exports the commodity — not a value-add export.
| HS · good | Imp/u | Exp/u | × | Read |
|---|
Verdict.
17 · Online trade ideas — validated against the data
Cross-checking published export/import-substitution ideas vs TRADESTAT 8-digit
Ideas from DHL/TradeBrains/FIEO (exports) & the govt 500-item import-substitution list, each tested against actual FY25-26 net trade. Some confirm, some get debunked.
| Direction | Idea | Exp $M | Imp $M | Net $M | Grw% | Verdict |
|---|
18 · Import-substitution target list (all sectors)
By sector — substitutable net import (US$M, FY25-26)
All net-import sectors India could substitute or supply into (crude/gold/coal excluded as structural). Trader column = commodity you can physically source vs a manufacturing build.
| Sector | Net import $M | Trader-tradeable? |
|---|
Structural (not substitutable — India lacks the resource)
Biggest deficits that import-substitution can't fix — for context.
| HS · good | Net import $M |
|---|
Top 40 import-substitution targets — 8-digit lines
Ranked by net import. Category tags the play: chemical/commodity & agri/raw & metal/scrap = physically tradeable (supply into India); hi-tech/mfg = domestic-manufacturing/PLI play.
| HS | Product | Net import $M | Imp growth | Category |
|---|
19 · Data consistency log
| Check | Result | Detail |
|---|
Sources. Trade: DGCI&S / TRADESTAT commodity-wise export & import (HSN 2-digit, US$M), india-trade-data-analysis.
Product split, crude basket & realized $/bbl: PPAC Ready Reckoner FY2025-26 H1, ppac-ready-reckoner-data.
Pricing methodology: Rangarajan Committee (Feb 2006), Expert Group on Pricing (Oct 2013), TERI "Petroleum pricing in India", PPAC price build-ups.
Gas: Kirit Parikh Committee (2023).
Caveats. (1) HSN data is 2-digit — Chapter 27 aggregates coal/LNG/electricity alongside petroleum, so the product split comes from PPAC, not the HSN file. (2) The OilPrice API on this plan returns no historical series (tested: Brent 1-yr & 1-mo both denied) and live spot was down during this build — the historical price backbone here is the repo/PPAC data; OilPrice can add only a current spot anchor once reachable. (3) OilPrice benchmarks are global proxies, not the exact Platts FOB-Arab-Gulf assessments used in Indian pricing. (4) FY2025-26 provisional; H1 columns are half-year.
Caveats. (1) HSN data is 2-digit — Chapter 27 aggregates coal/LNG/electricity alongside petroleum, so the product split comes from PPAC, not the HSN file. (2) The OilPrice API on this plan returns no historical series (tested: Brent 1-yr & 1-mo both denied) and live spot was down during this build — the historical price backbone here is the repo/PPAC data; OilPrice can add only a current spot anchor once reachable. (3) OilPrice benchmarks are global proxies, not the exact Platts FOB-Arab-Gulf assessments used in Indian pricing. (4) FY2025-26 provisional; H1 columns are half-year.
This dashboard covers the trade and duty picture for base oil and other Chapter 27 mineral-oil lines. The demand side of that picture — what happens to base oil once it becomes lubricant, gets used, and needs replacing — is covered separately in this blog's piece on India's used-oil EPR regime, including PPAC's own LOBS/Lube oil import-export numbers and the 2024-2030 recycling target ramp now in force.
About this article: Researched, written and edited by Umashankar Triplicane Dwarakanathan, with AI research assistance; every figure is meant to trace to the primary source cited. See the Editorial Policy for how sourcing, AI use and corrections work.
