Amidst America's strict monitoring and sanctions imposed on Russia, Reliance Industries has once again started buying Russian crude oil. At least three oil tankers carrying about 2.2 million barrels of Russian crude are headed for Reliance's Jamnagar refinery complex on India's west coast. Delivery of these tankers is expected at the beginning of this month.
According to data analytics company Kepler, this oil is of Ural grade, which will be refined to make fuel in India instead of being exported. Earlier in October, after the US blacklisted Russian oil majors Rosneft and Lukoil, Reliance had stopped purchasing Russian oil for some time. Rosneft was the largest supplier of Russian oil to Reliance and had a long-term agreement to supply about five lakh barrels per day. However, now Reliance has started purchasing again through other suppliers. These suppliers include trading companies like Alghaf Marine, Redwood Global Supply, Rusexport and Ethos Energy. Britain has imposed sanctions on some of these companies.
India has also faced criticism from US President Donald Trump and his administration for buying oil from Russia. Due to this uncertain environment, many refineries in the country had reduced the purchase of Russian oil in recent months, due to which India's Russian oil imports reached the lowest level in three years last month. According to Kpler data, Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance is set to be the world's largest buyer of Russian crude for most of 2024 and 2025. After the Ukraine war, when many countries reduced the purchase of oil from Russia, India and China emerged as big buyers of Russian oil.
In December, the supply of Russian oil at the Jamnagar refinery dropped to about 2.7 lakh barrels per day, which is less than 20 percent of Reliance's total imports. Earlier, between January and November, the share of Russian oil was more than 40 percent. Apart from Reliance, government companies Indian Oil Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp are also buying Russian crude oil from non-restricted suppliers. Heavy discounts, cheap oil despite low profits and uncertainty over trade talks with the US continue to make Russian oil attractive for Indian refineries.
