Reliance Resumes Russian Oil Imports To Feed Jamnagar Refinery
The oil market is focused on the fate of Russian exports after Washington imposed sanctions on Moscow's two top producers in October in a bid to curb the Kremlin's funds for the war in Ukraine.
India’s Reliance Industries Ltd. resumed purchases of discounted Russian crude, sourcing barrels from non-sanctioned suppliers and routing them to its refinery in Gujarat, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
India’s largest refiner contracted Aframax tankers from RusExport and is routing flows to a 660,000-barrel-a-day plant that supplies domestic customers, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing sensitive information. Its return to the market is likely to pare a decline in India’s purchases of Russian oil, which officials have said could more than halve this month.
The oil market is focused on the fate of Russian exports after Washington imposed sanctions on Moscow’s two top producers in October in a bid to curb the Kremlin’s funds for the war in Ukraine. That’s left Indian refiners to tap exports from non-sanctioned Russian entities — as well as costlier alternatives from elsewhere — though Russian flows were still expected to drop sharply.
Reliance itself paused Russian purchases after the US sanctioned Rosneft PJSC and Lukoil PJSC on Oct. 22 and gave refiners a month to wind down transactions with the two producers.
Reliance, which owns and operates the world’s biggest refinery complex in Jamnagar, Gujarat, was granted an additional month to receive vessels it had contracted before Oct. 22, the people said. The final cargo under that waiver arrived in India Dec. 17, before the exemption expired, they said.
As well as the 660,000-barrel-a-day plant at Jamnagar that supplies the domestic market, Reliance also operates a 700,000-barrel-a-day unit there that’s focused on exports.
The export-oriented refinery last took a shipment of Russian crude on Nov. 20, Reliance said last month. Since then, all Russian imports have flowed to its domestic sales-focused refinery.
Indian officials this month estimated that the nation’s oil imports from Russia would slump to about 800,000 barrels a day from an average 1.9 million barrels a day in November as refineries stopped taking the crude.
