New Delhi: Refineries in India and two other countries running on Russian crude shipped €1 billion ($1.2 billion) worth 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.
Where the Fuel Went
The CREA report covers refineries in India, Turkiye and Brunei. The EU took €667 million worth of their products, Australia €168 million, the U.S. €154 million and New Zealand €19 million. CREA estimated €295 million worth was refined from Russian crude.
Jamnagar also supplied the group’s largest U.S.-bound exports, worth €122 million, 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 Loophole in the EU Ban
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, regardless of the product’s declared origin. Notably, this is a recommendation from an advocacy group, not current policy.
India’s Russian Crude Imports Fall
India’s Russian crude imports fell 13% in September — the second straight monthly decline and the lowest since April. Intake dropped at all three of its largest importing refineries: Jamnagar by 27%, Indian Oil Corporation’s 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 €4.1 billion of Russian hydrocarbons. Crude oil constituted 88% of purchases (€3.6 billion), with coal (€309 million) and oil products (€161 million) making up the remainder.
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.
India Remains a Top Buyer
India was Russia’s second-largest fossil fuel customer in September, spending €4.1 billion 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.
