By Shakir Husain
NEW DELHI, Jan 6 (Bernama) -- Pressure from the United States is making Indian refiners cautious about buying Russian oil.
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), a major importer of Russian crude for its Jamnagar refinery in the state of Gujarat, on Tuesday has denied a recent news report that three tankers filled with nearly 2.2 million barrels of Urals were en route to deliver their cargoes early this month.
“Reliance Industries’ Jamnagar refinery has not received any cargo of Russian oil at its refinery in the past three weeks and is not expecting any Russian crude deliveries in January,” the company, controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, said in a statement posted on X.
“We are deeply pained that those claiming to be at the forefront of fair journalism chose to ignore the denial by RIL of buying any Russian oil to be delivered in January and published a wrong report tarnishing our image," it said, calling the news report “blatantly untrue”.
The statement also followed President Donald Trump’s remarks on Sunday that the US could raise even higher tariffs on India if New Delhi did not curb purchases of Russian oil.
India saw its crude oil imports from Russia skyrocket since the 2022 outbreak of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine, but growing US pressure on the Russian energy industry and Trump's additional tariffs on Indian goods last year have led to a reduction in the country's Russian energy deals.
In 2024, Reliance signed a long-term deal with Russian oil company Rosneft to buy 500,000 barrels per day of crude.
Russian oil deliveries to Reliance's Jamnagar refinery plunged to about 270,000 barrels a day in December, accounting for less than 20 per cent of its total imports, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing maritime data analytics firm Kpler.
Discounted Russian oil was also attractive to state-owned Indian Oil Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp.
However, the Western sanctions aimed at Russia's energy trade have complicated matters.
-- BERNAMA
