Pvt refiners trim Russian oil imports

A substantial flow of Russian oil in November to large state-run refiners in India and Chinese teapots (independent refiners not controlled by the state) had been observed.

- ‘S DINAKAR

Those exceeded non-sanctioned volumes on offer, according to an analysis of the data from international forecasters and ship-tracking agencies, and interviews with industry officials.

Concern over the provenance of the oil supplied in the last two months led private-sector refiners Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and HPCL-Mittal Energy (HMEL) to pause fuel purchase from Russia this year, an official from a private-sector refiner said.

But Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum, both state-run, continue their purchase.

The distance maintained by RIL, HMEL, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals, and Hindustan Petroleum from Russian oil sent purchase down by 34 percent this month to date from November, the data from market intelligence agency Kpler shows. This is something that United States (US) Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last week alluded to when he spoke of possible relief to India from the 25 per cent penalty imposed by US President Donald Trump on Indian exports to America for buying Russian oil.

But an analysis of the shipping and production data shows that Russian crude oil flows globally since November far exceeded available non-sanctioned volumes. For instance, India imported 1.85 million barrels per day (bpd) in November, 1.26 million bpd in December and 1.2 million bpd to date in January. This was led by Indian Oil and Nayara Energy, the Kpler data showed.