BPCL Purchases Crude Oil from Abu Dhabi after Sanctions on Russia’s Two Biggest Oil Producers

After the U.S. sanctioned two major Russian producers, India’s Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited has bought crude oil from Abu Dhabi in a spot tender to replace Russian oil.

Speaking to Reuters, two trade sources said on Monday that BPCL purchased 2 million barrels of Upper Zakum crude for loading in December. According to one of the sources, ADNOC Trading will supply the cargo.

Last week, the U.S imposed sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil, the two largest oil companies in Russia while accelerating efforts to pressure President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine.

A BPCL source said last week that the company would buy Russian oil only from non-sanctioned entities. The Indian refiner buys 2 million metric tons (14.66 million barrels) of oil from the spot market monthly, most of which is Russian. For half of this supply, it hopes to keep buying Russian oil from non-sanctioned entities, the source told Reuters and further mentioned that the rest will be non-Russian oil purchased from the spot market.

After BPCL reported a 168 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) jump in standalone net profit in the September quarter, the shares of the company rose over 2 per cent on Monday. 

For the second quarter of 2025-26 (Q2FY26), the company reported a 168 per cent Y-o-Y jump in standalone net profit at ₹6,442 crore. In addition to that, BPCL’s revenue from operations rose 2.54 per cent Y-o-Y in Q2FY26 to ₹1.21 trillion from ₹1.18 trillion last year.

According to a Business Standard report, the company reported an average GRM of $7.77 per barrel (bbl) in the first six months of the current financial year (H1FY26) as against $6.12/bbl in H1FY25. Refining margin refers to the profit booked on turning a barrel of crude oil into refined products.