India slips to third as Reliance puts brakes on Russian crude buy

NEW DELHI: India fell to third place among buyers of Russian fossil fuels in December 2025 after Reliance Industries and state-owned refiners sharply cut crude oil imports, a European think tank said on Tuesday.

The total Russian hydrocarbon imports by India stood at 2.3 billion euros in December, down from 3.3 billion euros in the preceding month, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).

“Turkiye displaced India as the second largest importer, purchasing Euro 2.6 billion of Russian hydrocarbons in December,” it said.

China remained the top buyer, accounting for 48 per cent (Euro 6 billion) of Russia’s export revenues from the top five importers.

“India was the third highest buyer of Russian fossil fuels, importing a total of Euro 2.3 billion of Russian hydrocarbons in December,” CREA said.

“Crude oil constituted 78 per cent of India’s purchases, totalling Euro 1.8 billion. Coal (Euro 424 million) and oil products (Euro 82 million) constituted the remainder of India’s monthly imports.”

In November, India spent 2.6 billion euros on the purchase of Russian crude oil, which is processed in refineries to make fuels like petrol and diesel.

“India’s Russian crude imports recorded a sharp 29 per cent month-on-month reduction to the lowest volumes since the implementation of the price cap policy. These drops occurred despite total imports growing marginally,” CREA said without giving absolute numbers.

These cuts, it said, were led largely by the Jamnagar refinery of Reliance Industries, which reduced its imports from Russia by half in December.

“The entirety of their (Reliance’s) imports were supplied by (Russia’s) Rosneft, albeit from cargoes purchased before the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions came into effect,” it said.

State-owned refineries also cut Russian imports by 15 per cent in December.

The US has imposed sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil, two of the largest oil producers in Russia, to cut off the Kremlin’s resources for funding the Ukraine war.

The sanctions have resulted in companies like Reliance Industries, halting or cutting imports for now.