Reliance Calls Bloomberg Report On Russian Oil 'Blatantly Untrue' Amid Tariff Tensions

Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) on Tuesday has denied a Bloomberg report claiming that tankers carrying Russian crude oil were headed for its Jamnagar refinery, even labelling the story 'blatantly untrue' and damaging to the company's reputation.

The clarification from RIL, which operates world's largest refining complex, comes in the midst of intensifying pressure from the United States regarding India's energy trade with Moscow, with President Donald Trump linking tariffs to the purchase of Russian oil.

In a statement posted on social media platform X, RIL clarified that its refiniery has not received any Russian crude in the last three weeks and has no such scheduled deliveries for the remainder of the month.

"A news report in Bloomberg claiming 'three vessels laden with Russian Oil are heading for Reliance Industries Limited’s Jamnagar refinery' is blatantly untrue," the company stated.

The initial Bloomberg report had cited data from Kpler, alleging that three vessels carrying approximately 2.2 million billion barrels of Russian Urals crude were headed for the Jamnagar complex.

"We are deeply pained that those claiming to be at the forefront of fair journalism chose to ignore the denial by RIL... and published a wrong report tarnishing our image," the statement read.

The dispute over oil shipments and RIL's strong rebuttal is hardly surprising as India's trade with Russia over oil has become a particularly sensitive matter. The Trump administration, after all, has constantly leveraged tariffs as a tool to curb the nation's consumption of Russian energy.

Merely days prior to RIL's statement, President Trump had even claimed that India had reduced its Russian oil imports in an effort to "make him happy" and secure a trade deal.

In the wake of the ongoing uncertainty, shares of RIL have faced immense pressure in trade on Tuesday, falling up to 5%.