Private Refiners Gain Big From India's Russian Oil Savings

Unlike their public-sector counterparts, private players export a large portion of their output to Europe and Asia at lucrative prices

- S DINAKAR

Even as refining officials mull receiving discounted Russian crude oil beyond August 27, when US President Donald Trump's tariffs kick in, gains accrued since 2022 from India's purchase of Russian grades are not uniformly distributed, with private sector refiners becoming the biggest beneficiaries.

State-run refiners, cosseted by New Delhi's fixed fuel price regime, have gained less, industry sources said and ship-tracking data showed.

Just two Indian refiners, both private, accounted for a combined 881,000 barrels per day (bpd) of the 1.8 million bpd in total imports of discounted Russian crude oil in 2025 until date, according to data from maritime intelligence agency Kpler.

There were seven Indian importers for the oil.

Over the last four years—ever since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 that led to a series of sanctions and bars on its oil—Reliance Industries and Russian Rosneft-operated Nayara Energy still accounted for over 40 per cent of the average 1.5 million bpd supplies India sourced from Russia.

Russia vaulted to capture an average 32 per cent share of the Indian crude oil import market on an average over the last 42 months from 2 per cent in 2021. This was at the expense of Saudi Arabia, US and Nigeria, among others.

In June 2025, the share was a record 45 per cent, meaning virtually every second barrel of India's overseas crude came from Russia.

Reliance has been the biggest beneficiary of this exercise even though the extent of profits is unknown.