Indian refiners’ fuel exports to West surge 43% amid Russian crude imports

Refineries in India and two other countries that run on Russian crude shipped 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) of oil products to sanctioning countries in September, up 43% from August, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).

Reliance Industries Ltd.'s Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat supplied six of the seven cargoes unloaded at EU ports that month, despite the bloc's ban on fuel made from Russian crude.

The CREA report covers refineries in India, Turkiye and Brunei. The EU took 667 million euros' worth of their products, Australia 168 million euros, the U.S. 154 million euros and New Zealand 19 million euros. CREA estimated 295 million euros' worth was refined from Russian crude.

Jamnagar also supplied the group's largest U.S.-bound exports, worth 122 million euros, and Russian crude made up 32% of its imports from July to September.

Italy received three of the seven EU-bound shipments, Romania two, and Spain and Cyprus one each. Exports reported as destined for EU ports from refineries running on Russian crude rose 80% in value, including a single 104,000-tonne cargo of gasoil (diesel) from Jamnagar still en route to Rotterdam.

The EU banned imports of oil products refined from Russian crude in January 2026. The ban exempts net crude exporters, but CREA says the exemption leaves a gap, since net-export status does not stop a country from refining Russian-origin crude. The report calls for applying the ban at the refinery level, barring products from any plant that has processed Russian crude in the previous six months, whatever the product's declared origin. That is a recommendation from an advocacy group, not policy.

India's Russian crude imports fell 13% in September, the second straight monthly decline and the lowest since April, CREA said. Intake dropped at all three of its largest importing refineries: Jamnagar by 27%, Indian Oil Corporation's (IOC) Paradip by 21% and Nayara Energy's Vadinar by 8%. "Despite the decline, Vadinar overtook Jamnagar as India's largest importer of Russian crude."

"India was the second-largest buyer of Russian fossil fuels in September 2026, importing a total of 4.1 billion euros of Russian hydrocarbons. Crude oil constituted 88% of India's purchases, totalling 3.6 billion euros. Coal (309 million euros) and oil products (161 million euros) constituted the remainder of its monthly Russian imports," CREA said.

Imports at smaller installations also mostly trended downwards, with the HMEL Mundra Oil Terminal and the Kochi refinery lowering intakes by 74% and 32%, respectively, month-on-month. "The main exception was the IOC Mundra Oil Terminal, which received 570 thousand tonnes of Russian crude in September after receiving none in August," CREA said.

India was Russia's second-largest fossil fuel customer in September, spending 4.1 billion euros on Russian hydrocarbons, 88% of it crude. Only China bought more. Since December 2022, India has taken 37% of Russia's crude exports, against China's 50%.

India was a marginal buyer of Russian oil before the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. It became a top customer as Western buyers retreated and Russia sold at steep discounts. Urals crude averaged $90.7 a barrel in September but still traded $23 below Brent, unchanged from August.

Analysts at Kpler say the fall in volumes partly reflects tighter supply and stronger Chinese competition for Russian barrels, not only U.S. pressure. They expect India's October imports to hold at 1.8-1.9 million barrels per day.