Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: With geoeconomics becoming a tool of geopolitics, India’s oil processors, the top buyers of seaborne crude from Russia, have been weighing up their options since the US last week blacklisted two of Russia’s biggest fuel producers, Rosneft PJSC and Lukoil PJSC, the media reported on Saturday.
War economics is strange. Not only are the European nations buying Russian crude refined by India, but even Ukraine is doing so, although indirectly. According to some reports, Ukraine is running on Russian crude bought from India as refined oil. In July 2025, India became Ukraine’s top diesel supplier, covering 15.5 percent of its imports with about 2,700 tons per day, This diesel is refined in India from Russian crude bought at a discount, the reports claimed.
India’s private and public sector refiners, who account for more than half of the nation’s imports of Russian crude, have paused buying for the coming months, reinforcing expectations that purchases for December and January delivery will plunge.
Russian crude’s top importer, Reliance Industries Ltd, which had signed a long-term supply contract with Rosneft only a few months ago, will no longer take Russian cargoes, the reports, citing sources, said. The conglomerate was already grappling with an incoming European Union ban on fuels made from Moscow’s oil.
Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd, among the smaller state-owned entities, said it paused all buying for now, citing the risk of secondary sanctions.
HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd, a joint venture between tycoon Lakshmi Mittal’s Mittal Energy and stat-promoted Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd, also suspended further deals.
Combined, the three accounted for about 920,000 barrels a day of Russian crude imports in the first half of the year — or 52 percent of India’s total. That will now likely fall to zero, although the figure could change over time as other factors, including sanctions enforcement and the evolution of India’s trade talks with the US, become clearer.
These refiners are now moving to fill the gap left by Moscow. Reliance went on an oil-buying spree last week, picking up at least 10 million barrels of Middle East and US cargoes to make up for the shortfall.
MRPL purchased spot crude from Abu Dhabi. State-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) said earlier this week that the company was “absolutely not going to discontinue” purchases of Russian crude, but would comply with international sanctions. Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL), another state-owned refiner, also expressed interest in buying some Russian crude in the current trading cycle.
Meanwhile, a tanker carrying a cargo of Russian crude from recently sanctioned Rosneft PJSC has been holding off Mumbai for a week amid intense scrutiny of Indian refiners’ purchases following the US curbs.
The Ailana reached the waters off the Indian commercial hub on October 24, and has been nearly stationary since then, with the cargo still aboard, according to ship-tracking data, as well as an industry executive and shipbrokers, the reports said.
The Aframax-sized tanker has not yet been scheduled to dock, port agents’ reports show.
The oil market has zeroed in on Russia’s export patterns, as well as Indian purchasing, after the US sanctioned Rosneft and Lukoil PJSC on October 22.