NEW DELHI: India’s imports of Russian crude oil recorded a sharp decline of 29% month-on-month, falling to the lowest volumes since the implementation of the price ceiling policy, but are making a strong turnaround in January this year, the Center for Energy and Clean Air Research (CREA) said in its monthly analysis of Russia’s fossil fuel exports for December. According to the report, the decline occurred despite marginal growth in overall imports. The decline was driven by a sharp fall in imports from Reliance’s Jamnagar refinery – by almost 49% – and a 15% cut by state refiners in December. According to Kpler, a global provider of real-time data and analytics, India imported over 20.4 million barrels of crude oil from Russia in 2025. In December, 1.2 million barrels were imported, compared to 1.8 million barrels a month earlier. Till January 13 this year, India had imported over 1.1 million barrels of crude oil from Russia.
In terms of value, India was the third largest buyer of Russian fossil fuels – displaced from second position by Turkiye – and imported a total of 2.3 billion euros worth of Russian hydrocarbons in December, CREA said in the report. While crude oil made up 78% of India’s purchases, totaling EUR 1.8 billion, coal (EUR 424 million) and oil products (EUR 82 million) made up the rest of India’s monthly imports. Indian crude oil imports were recorded at EUR 2.5 billion in October and EUR 2.6 billion in November.The report added that the Jamnagar refinery cut imports from Russia by almost half in December. “All imports were supplied by Rosneft, albeit from cargo purchased before OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control in the US) sanctions came into effect. State refiners also cut Russian imports by 15% in December,” the report said.According to the CREA analysis, monthly revenues from Russia’s fossil fuel exports fell 2% month-on-month to 500 million euros per day – the second lowest figure since the large-scale invasion of Ukraine. Monthly export volumes also showed a similar decline of 2% month-on-month. Total crude oil export revenues fell 12% to EUR 198 million per day.Russia’s fossil fuel exports remain highly concentrated, with China dominating purchases of coal and crude oil, Turkiye dominating purchases of oil products and the EU remaining the largest buyer of LNG and pipeline gas. While China remained the largest global buyer of Russian fossil fuels in December, accounting for 48% (EUR 6 billion) of Russia’s export revenues among the top five importers, the EU was the fourth largest buyer of Russian fossil fuels, accounting for 11% (EUR 1.3 billion) of Russia’s export revenues among the top five importers.In December, five refineries in India, Turkiye and Brunei that use Russian crude exported 943 million euros worth of oil products to sanctioned countries. Importers included the EU (€436 million), the US (€189 million), the United Kingdom (€34 million) and Australia (€283 million).
#Indias #imports #Russian #crude #fall #monthonmonth #Times #India