Indias Russian oil imports decline: How US tariffs & sanctions have shifted global energy

New Delhi: Russian crude oil imports played an important role in helping the Indian economy from 2022 to 2025. By buying discounted Russian oil and then selling it to many countries, India earned profits. In the last few months, India has become the second largest importer of Russian oil. When the whole world refused to buy Russian oil, India not only came forward and adopted Russian oil but also turned disaster into an opportunity.

Now the situation has changed rapidly. The US has imposed an extra tariff of 25 percent on buying Russian oil on India. At the same time, the United States is going to pass such a bill regarding Russia so that Trump can impose tariffs of up to 500 per cent on countries like India, China and Brazil. Due to which India has reduced the supply of Russian oil.

Due to the decrease in this supply, India has fallen behind Turkey to the third position in terms of import of Russian oil. Whereas China still remains at the first position. Experts say that now India has once again returned to its old suppliers to the Middle East instead of Russia. Along with this, the purchase of American oil has also increased. Due to which there has been a decrease in Russian oil supply. Let us also tell you what the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air said on this matter.

European think tank Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) on Tuesday reported that India slipped to third place among Russian crude oil buyers in December 2025 after the drastic reduction in crude oil imports by Reliance Industries and state-owned refineries. According to CREA, India's total Russian hydrocarbon imports in December stood at 2.3 billion euros, which is less than 3.3 billion euros in November. CREA said that with the purchase of Russian hydrocarbons worth 2.6 billion euros in December, Turkey surpassed India and became the second largest importer. Among the top five importers, 48 percent (6 billion euros) of Russia's export revenue was from China, which remains the top buyer.

CREA further said that India was the third-largest buyer of Russian oil as it imported 2.3 billion euros of Russian hydrocarbons in December. Crude oil accounted for 78 percent of India's total purchases, with a total value of 1.8 billion euros, while coal (424 million euros) and oil products (82 million euros) accounted for the remaining share. In November, India spent 2.6 billion euros on Russian crude oil, which is processed in domestic refineries to produce fuels like petrol and diesel. CREA said that India's Russian crude oil imports have declined drastically by 29 percent month-on-month, which is the lowest since the implementation of the price cap policy. This decline has come despite a slight increase in total imports.

The decline was mainly due to Reliance Industries' Jamnagar refinery, which halved its imports from Russia in December. CREA said that RIL’s entire import was done from Rosneft, although these goods were purchased before the sanctions were imposed by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). State-owned refineries also reduced Russian purchases by 15 percent in December. The United States has imposed sanctions on Russia's two largest oil producers, Rosneft and Lukoil. Companies like Reliance, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), HPCL-Mittal Energy Limited and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited have temporarily stopped or reduced imports due to sanctions. However, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) continues to purchase oil from non-restricted Russian entities.

India, which is the world's third-largest oil importer, became a major buyer of discounted Russian crude oil due to reduced purchases by Western countries following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Traditionally dependent on Middle East oil, India has rapidly increased Russian imports due to sanctions and reduced European demand due to the availability of oil at a huge discount, which increased its share of total crude oil imports from 1 percent to about 40 percent. In December 2025, Russia supplied about 25 percent of India's crude oil imports, down from 35 percent the previous month.

In its report, CREA also mentioned the export flows from refineries processing Russian crude oil. It reported that in December, five refineries using Russian crude oil in India, Turkey, and Brunei exported oil products worth 943 million euros to sanctioned countries. Notably, the importers were the European Union, the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia.

Exports to Australia (€284 million) increased 9%, with India's Jamnagar refinery (€132 million) and Brunei's Hengyi refinery (€116 million) contributing the most. Exports to the US from the Jamnagar and Tupras Aliaga refineries surged 121% to €189 million.

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Meanwhile, China remained the largest buyer of Russian oil, accounting for 48% (€6 billion) of the top five importers' total revenue.