Reliance halts Russian oil imports amid EU sanctions, no deliveries expected in January

Reliance Industries Ltd, the operator of the world’s largest single-site oil refining complex and until recently India’s biggest buyer of Russian oil, on Tuesday said it has not received any Russian crude cargoes in nearly three weeks and is not expecting any deliveries in January.

The company said it stopped importing Russian crude oil into its export-only refinery at Jamnagar, Gujarat, from November 20, 2025, as part of efforts to comply with European Union sanctions targeting Russia’s energy sector.

“Reliance Industries’ Jamnagar refinery has not received any cargo of Russian oil at its refinery in the past three weeks approx. and is not expecting any Russian crude oil deliveries in January,” the company said in a statement.

The clarification came after Reliance rejected as “blatantly untrue” a Bloomberg report that claimed three vessels carrying Russian oil were headed to its Jamnagar refinery. The report, citing data analytics firm Kpler, said at least three tankers carrying nearly 2.2 million barrels of Urals crude were en route to the Sikka port, which supplies a significant portion of crude to the Jamnagar refining complex.

Industry sources said the cargoes cited in the report were likely meant for Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd’s (BPCL) Bina refinery and not for Reliance. Sikka port is also used by non-Reliance companies.

Reliance had earlier stated on November 20, 2025, that it had halted the processing of Russian crude at its special economic zone (SEZ) refinery. “We have stopped importing Russian crude oil into our SEZ refinery with effect from November 20,” a Reliance spokesperson had said at the time. The company had also said that from December 1, all product exports from the SEZ refinery would be derived from non-Russian crude oil.

The Jamnagar complex consists of two refineries — an SEZ unit that exports fuels to the European Union, the United States, and other markets, and an older unit that primarily serves the domestic market.

The European Union, a key market for Reliance’s fuel exports, has imposed wide-ranging sanctions aimed at curbing Russia’s energy revenues, including restrictions on the import and sale of fuels produced from Russian crude oil. To comply with these measures, Reliance stopped processing Russian crude at its export-only refinery.

Before halting imports, Reliance had been India’s largest buyer of Russian oil, purchasing about half of the 1.7–1.8 million barrels per day of discounted Russian crude shipped to India.

India became the second-largest buyer of discounted Russian seaborne crude after the Ukraine war began in 2022, drawing criticism from Western nations that have imposed sanctions on Russia’s energy sector, arguing that oil revenues help finance Moscow’s war effort.

On Sunday, US President Donald Trump warned that the United States could raise tariffs on India if New Delhi fails to curb purchases of Russian oil.