Reliance Industries said on Tuesday it is not expecting any Russian crude oil deliveries in January and has not received such cargoes in the past three weeks.
The private refiner, which used to be India's largest buyer of Russian oil, published a statement on social media denying a Bloomberg report based on Kpler data that three vessels laden with Russian oil are heading to its Jamnagar refinery.
India emerged as the biggest buyer of discounted Russian seaborne crude following the start of the Ukraine war in 2022. The purchases have fuelled a backlash from Western nations, which have targeted Russia's energy sector with sanctions, arguing that oil revenues help fund Moscow's war effort.
With Reliance halting Russian crude purchases, India's oil imports from Russia are set to fall further in January, with China the only major outlet for Moscow.
Indian authorities asked refiners for weekly disclosures of Russian and US oil purchases, people familiar with the matter said, Reuters reported last week. The sources said they expect Russian crude imports to dip below one million barrels per day as New Delhi seeks to clinch a trade deal with Washington.
Stricter US and European Union sanctions have already slowed Russian oil flows to India, which fell to a three-year low of about 1.2 million bpd in December, according to sources and analytics firm Kpler. That marks a roughly 40 per cent drop from a June peak of around two million bpd.
(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Writing by Florence Tan; Editing by Sonali Paul and Jacqueline Wong)
