Reliance Industries Limited has resumed buying cheap Russian crude again, obtaining barrels via non-sanctioned suppliers and sending them to its Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat, reported Bloomberg. According to reports, India’s biggest refiner hired Aframax tankers, and sourced the discounted crude from non-sanctioned entities like RusExport.
RIL is directing flows to a 660,000-barrel-per-day unit at the Jamnagar refinery that delivers to domestic clients.
The decrease in India’s imports of Russian oil, which officials have predicted might more than halve this month, is expected to be mitigated by its return to the market.
The US granted India’s biggest refiner a one-month concession to secure the supply of oil from the sanctioned company Rosneft. RIL halted the procurement after the sanctions on Rosneft PJSC and Lukoil PJSC on 22nd October. Refiners were given a month to complete their deals with the two producers.
The corporation mentioned the final sanctioned oil purchase was loaded on 12th November and will be delivered at a later time. According to trade flows data from Kpler, RIL has received about 15 shipments of Russian oil from Rosneft since 22nd November.
A corporate source disclosed that RIL is not utilising the window to obtain more shipments from Rosneft. He added, “We wanted more time to import what was contracted before sanctions came in,” reported The Telegraph. Reliance runs a 700,000-barrel-per-day facility in Jamnagar that is geared towards exports in addition to the 660,000-barrel-per-day plant that supplies the local market.
The company stated that the export-focused refinery last received a shipment of Russian crude on 20th November, and since then imports have been directed towards Russia’s domestic sales-focused refinery. This month, Indian officials projected that the country’s oil imports from Russia would drop from an average of 1.9 million barrels per day in November to roughly 800,000 barrels per day as refineries stopped accepting the crude.
The United States has repeatedly accused Russia of being responsible for the war in Ukraine and has consequently taken measures to penalise the nation. The Trump administration even attributed India’s acquisition of crude oil as a means of financing the conflict and imposed a 50% tariff on the country (including a 25% tariff for purchasing Russian oil).
OpIndia has already detailed how a multitude of factors have influenced India’s purchase of Russian oil in recent months.
