Indian refiners bought 18% of all the crude Russia exported in May, up from 1% before the Ukraine invasion, with Reliance Industries NSE -1.40 %' Jamnagar refinery sourcing 27% of its needs from there, a Helsinki-based research agency has said.
Russian crude oil imports into the European Union fell by 18% in May, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CRECA) said in a report on Monday. "However, this reduction was was taken up by India and the United Arab Emirates, leading to no net change in Russia's crude oil export volumes."
The US and Europe have been pressuring India to not increase its import of Russian oil since the outbreak of the Ukraine war. Deep discounts available on Russian oil have, however, whetted Indian refiners' appetite for Russian oil that was traditionally not found competitive due to higher freight.
The largest Indian buyer is the Jamnagar refinery, which got 27% of its oil from Russia in May, up from less than 5% before April, CRECA said in its report titled 'Financing Putin's war: Fossil fuel imports from Russia in the first 100 days of the invasion'.
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