NEW DELHI- India's oil imports from Africa and the United States rose sharply in November, while those from the from the Middle East and Latin America fell, data obtained from industry sources shows.

Last month India, the world's third largest oil importer and consumer, imported 3.9 million barrels per day (bpd), 3.3% less than in October, the data showed.

However, the annual pace of decline in India's oil imports has been slowing as fuel demand in Asia's third largest economy gradually recovers. Annual oil imports fell by about 8.5% in November, the smallest drop in seven months. 

Indian Oil Corp, the country's top refiner, operated its 9 plants in November at 100% capacity for the first time since February.

Oil imports from the United States rose 49% in November from the previous month to a 13-month high of 283,000 bpd, or about 7% of overall imports compared to 4% in October, the data showed.

That bumped it up three places to become India's fourth biggest supplier, behind Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, pushing Nigeria and Kuwait into fifth and sixth place respectively.

African oil imports rose 23% from October, boosting the region's share of Indian imports to 14% in November from 11%, while Latin America's dipped to 10% from 13.5%.

Imports from Latin America fell 29% to 388,000 bpd as Reliance Industries, Venezuela's only Indian oil client, received the last shipments allowed under temporary permission from the U.S..

Imports from the Middle East fell 4.5% to about 2.6 million bpd, leading to a minor reduction in its share of overall imports to 66%.

The share of OPEC oil, including supplies from the Neutral Zone where production belongs to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, fell to a four month low of 71.6%, putting its average share for the first eight months of this fiscal year to March at 73.8%.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Kirsten Donovan) ((nidhi.verma@thomsonreuters.com; +91 11 49548031; Reuters Messaging: nidhi.verma.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))