Reliance to Resume Russian Oil Imports in Feb for Domestic Market

Reliance Industries is planning to purchase around 150,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Russian oil from February for its domestic market-focused refinery, Reuters reported citing a company executive.

Reliance had previously paused imports of Russian oil after the US imposed sanctions in October 2025 on major Russian oil producers Rosneft and Lukoil. The company did receive a one-month concession from the US that allowed it to complete earlier deals, but since then it has largely stopped taking Russian supplies.

Under the new plan, Reliance will source crude from Russian sellers that are not under US sanctions. The move is aimed at meeting the needs of Reliance’s domestic market-focused refinery operations rather than exports.

Prior to this development, Reliance had strongly denied a Bloomberg report that claimed the company had received fresh shipments of Russian crude oil at the Jamnagar refinery, calling the report “completely untrue” and damaging to its reputation.

During the first week of January, Bloomberg had published the report citing data from oil-tracking firm Kpler and claimed that at least three oil tankers carrying around 2.2 million barrels of Russia’s Urals crude were heading to the Jamnagar refinery. The media portal had said that those cargoes were expected to arrive early this month, while also noting that shipping destinations can change before final delivery.

At that time, Reliance had said that it didn't receive any Russian oil shipments in the past three weeks and was not expecting any deliveries in January.

Reliance has been widely reported as India’s largest buyer of Russian crude. For much of 2025, particularly between October and November, the company was estimated to be buying around half of India’s total Russian oil imports, which stood at roughly 1.7 million barrels per day.

Notably, in December 2024, Reliance reportedly signed a long-term supply agreement with Russia’s state-owned Rosneft for up to 500,000 barrels per day for 25 years, alongside purchases made through spot market deals.

However, in November 2025, Reliance stopped importing Russian crude for its export-only refinery unit at Jamnagar. This step was taken to comply with a European Union ban on fuel made from Russian oil through third countries, which came into force on January 21, 2026. The move also aligned with US sanctions on major Russian oil producers Rosneft and Lukoil, which took effect from November 21, 2025.

The company also imports oil from other countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Canada. Recently, it was also seeking US approval to resume purchases of Venezuelan crude as part of its broader strategy to diversify supplies, an earlier Reuters report stated.

During the first week of January, Reliance officials were in talks with the US State Department and the Treasury Department to get the approval. The discussions came amid the backdrop of US-Venezuela negotiations for a deal that could allow the shipment of about 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil, following US' capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

In the past, US had given Reliance special licences to buy oil from Venezuela despite US sanctions. Under those approvals, Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA supplied Reliance with four crude cargoes, around 63,000 barrels per day, during the first few months of 2025, the report stated citing internal PDVSA records.

However, the US suspended most licences for PDVSA’s business partners between March and April 2025 and warned countries buying Venezuelan oil that they could face tariffs.

Reliance’s last shipment of Venezuelan oil reached India in May 2025. It has worked with PDVSA for many years, and before US sanctions on oil trade, India was Venezuela’s third-largest oil market, buying about 400,000 bpd.