Russia Imports Record Fuel From India As Ukraine Strikes Hit Refineries

NEW DELHI, Sept 13: Russia imported a record 172,000 tonnes of oil products in August, with India accounting for 70 per cent of the supplies, as Ukrainian drone strikes disrupted Moscow’s domestic refining capacity, according to a monthly analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).

India supplied Russia with 120,000 tonnes of gasoline worth 78 million euros during the month, CREA said. The volume of Russian oil-product imports was more than seven times the previous monthly record and three times the total imported during all of 2025.

The gasoline supplied by India was loaded at the Vadinar refinery and sold by EU-sanctioned Nayara Energy to Rosneft, CREA said. Russia’s Rosneft owns 49.13 per cent of Nayara Energy. The Vadinar refinery sourced all its crude from Russia during the first eight months of 2026, compared with 81 per cent for the whole of 2025.

“Russia is therefore paying a refinery that it partly owns to process its own crude into fuel it can no longer produce domestically, before shipping it back halfway around the world,” CREA said.

The shipments highlight the impact of a sustained Ukrainian drone campaign against Russian oil refineries and energy infrastructure, which has reduced domestic fuel production and contributed to shortages.

Each gasoline cargo exported from Vadinar to Russia was transferred between vessels in a ship-to-ship operation off Egypt before being unloaded at Russia’s Arctic port of Beloe More. CREA said all vessels involved were sanctioned tankers, while four of the six had previously operated under false flags.

Russia’s gasoline imports surged even as the country, historically one of the world’s largest refined petroleum exporters, witnessed declining exports. Gasoline accounted for 74 per cent of total oil-product imports in August, compared with an average of just 6 per cent between 2023 and 2025.

South Korea supplied another 18,000 tonnes of oil products to Russia in August, mostly gasoil, while Egypt exported 25,000 tonnes of diesel worth 16 million euros, CREA said.

Russia’s seaborne oil-product exports fell 21 per cent by volume in August, while revenues from products unloaded at destination ports declined 32 per cent from July to 78 million euros per day, the lowest level since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Oil-product loadings at Russian ports declined for the third consecutive month and were less than half their August 2025 level, CREA said.

Tuapse, Russia’s fourth-largest oil-product export port before the full-scale invasion, did not load a single oil-product cargo for the third consecutive month following sustained Ukrainian drone attacks since May.

Ukrainian strikes also disrupted crude exports through Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. Crude loadings there fell 58 per cent month-on-month in August, while operations stopped for nine consecutive days, the longest reported interruption at the port since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, according to CREA.

Overall, Russia’s fossil-fuel export revenues fell 8 per cent in August to 604 million euros per day, while export volumes declined 7 per cent.

India remained Russia’s second-largest fossil-fuel customer in August, behind China. India imported 4.8 billion euros worth of Russian hydrocarbons during the month, including crude oil worth 4.1 billion euros, or 87 per cent of its purchases, CREA said.

Indian imports of Russian crude fell 24 per cent from July after reaching record levels during the previous two months. Imports at the Jamnagar refinery declined 15 per cent, while those at Vadinar rose 5 per cent and Paradip increased 1 per cent.

China was Russia’s largest fossil-fuel customer in August, accounting for 8.4 billion euros, or 51 per cent, of revenues generated by its five largest buyers. Russian seaborne crude imports into China increased 16 per cent month-on-month and were 62 per cent above August 2025 levels, CREA said.

Despite declining export volumes, Russia continued to benefit from elevated global energy prices. The average price of Russia’s Urals crude rose 23 per cent in August to USD 69.90 a barrel, well above the G7 and European Union price cap of USD 44.10, according to CREA.

The research group estimated that higher oil and gas prices following the US-Israel strikes on Iran increased Russia’s seaborne fossil-fuel export revenues by about 31 billion euros during the six months after the strikes. (Agencies)