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India fell to 3rd spot among buyers of Russian fossil fuels successful December 2025 aft Reliance Industries and state-owned refiners sharply chopped crude lipid imports, a European deliberation vessel said connected Tuesday (January 13, 2026).
The full Russian hydrocarbon imports by India stood astatine €2.3 cardinal successful December, down from €3.3 cardinal successful the preceding month, according to the Centre for Research connected Energy and Clean Air (CREA).
"Turkiye displaced India arsenic the 2nd largest importer, purchasing €2.6 cardinal of Russian hydrocarbons successful December," it said.
China remained the apical buyer, accounting for 48% (€6 billion) of Russia's export revenues from the apical 5 importers.
"India was the 3rd highest purchaser of Russian fossil fuels, importing a full of €2.3 cardinal of Russian hydrocarbons successful December," CREA said.
"Crude lipid constituted 78% of India's purchases, totalling €1.8 billion. Coal (€424 million) and lipid products (€82 million) constituted the remainder of India's monthly imports." In November, India spent €2.6 cardinal connected the acquisition of Russian crude oil, which is processed successful refineries to marque fuels similar petrol and diesel.
"India's Russian crude imports recorded a crisp 29% month-on-month simplification to the lowest volumes since the implementation of the terms headdress policy. These drops occurred contempt full imports increasing marginally," CREA said without giving implicit numbers.
These cuts, it said, were led mostly by the Jamnagar refinery of Reliance Industries, which reduced its imports from Russia by fractional successful December.
"The entirety of their (Reliance's) imports were supplied by (Russia's) Rosneft, albeit from cargoes purchased earlier the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions came into effect," it said. State-owned refineries besides chopped Russian imports by 15% successful December.
The U.S. has imposed sanctions connected Rosneft and Lukoil, 2 of the largest lipid producers successful Russia, to chopped disconnected the Kremlin's resources for backing the Ukraine war.
The sanctions person resulted successful companies similar Reliance Industries, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd halting oregon cutting imports for now. However, different refiners similar Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) proceed to bargain from non-sanctioned Russian entities.
India, the world's third-largest lipid importer, emerged arsenic the biggest purchaser of discounted Russian crude aft Western countries shunned Moscow pursuing its February 2022 penetration of Ukraine.
Traditionally reliant connected Middle Eastern oil, India dramatically accrued Russian imports arsenic sanctions and reduced European request made the barrels disposable astatine steep discounts, pushing its stock from nether 1% to astir 40% of full crude imports.
Russia supplied astir 25% of each crude lipid that India imported successful December, down from 35% successful the erstwhile month.
"In December, 5 refineries successful India, Turkiye and Brunei that usage Russian crude exported €943 cardinal of lipid products to sanctioning countries. The importers included the EU (€436 million), USA (€189 million), UK (€34 million) and Australia (€283 million). An estimated €274 cardinal of these products were refined from Russian crude," CREA said.
There was a 9% month-on-month simplification successful the refineries’ exports to sanctioning countries. The alteration was led chiefly by the EU and UK, which recorded monthly reductions of 26% and 53%, respectively.
"In opposition to those two, exports to Australia (€284 million) accrued by 9% successful December. The biggest exporters to Australia were the Jamnagar refinery successful India (€132 million) and the Hengyi refinery successful Brunei (€116 million)," the deliberation vessel said.
"There was a 121% summation successful exports to the USA, totalling €189 million. These exports originated successful the Jamnagar refinery and the Tupras Aliaga refinery successful Turkiye." China remained the largest planetary purchaser of Russian fossil fuel, accounting for 48% (€6 billion) of export revenues from the apical 5 importers. Crude lipid made up 60% (€3.6 billion) of China's purchases, followed by ember and pipeline gas. Seaborne crude imports roseate 23% month-on-month, driven by higher ESPO-grade crude inflows, portion Urals-grade imports accrued 15%, reaching the highest fourth-quarter volumes since Q2 2023.
The European Union ranked 4th among buyers, with Russian fossil substance imports worthy €1.3 billion, fractional of which was LNG. Hungary was the fourth-largest single-country buyer, portion Saudi Arabia imported €328 cardinal of Russian lipid products, ranking 5th successful December.
