India's Russian crude imports hit record in July'26

New Delhi: India's purchase of Russian crude reached a fresh high in July, with refiners importing a record 2.8 million barrels per day (bpd), highlighting how deeply Russian oil has become embedded in the country's energy supply chain despite tightening US sanctions on Moscow.

Russian crude accounted for about 55.5 percent of India's total crude imports of just over 5 million bpd in July, according to data cited by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA). The July volume was also significantly higher than India's average Russian crude imports of about 1.8 million bpd in 2024.

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The increase comes despite a substantially tougher sanctions environment around Russian oil and underlines the commercial importance of the trade for both sides: Russia needs large Asian buyers to sustain export revenues, while Indian refiners continue to find Russian crude attractive as a source of feedstock.

CREA said India imported €5.5 billion worth of Russian crude in July, accounting for 87 percent of its total Russian fossil-fuel purchases of €6.4 billion. Coal accounted for €512 million and oil products for another €341 million.

The value of crude purchases was higher than the €4.5 billion recorded in June. The 2.1 percent month-on-month increase cited by CREA relates to import volumes, not the value of crude purchases.

From marginal supplier to dominant source

The scale of the shift in India's Russian oil dependence is striking. Russia supplied less than 100,000 bpd to India in 2021, accounting for around 2.5 percent of the country's crude imports, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the withdrawal of many European buyers, Russian crude began flowing increasingly towards Asian refiners.

Russian supplies to India rose to around 740,000 bpd in 2022 and nearly 1.8 million bpd in 2023, when Russia accounted for roughly 39 percent of India's crude imports.

The July 2026 figure of 2.8 million bpd represents a further escalation.

India has now emerged as the second-largest buyer of Russian fossil fuels, behind China. CREA estimates that India accounted for 37 percent of Russia's crude oil exports over the period covered by its analysis, compared with 50 percent for China.

Record volumes did not come only from Jamnagar

An interesting feature of July's surge is where the additional barrels went. The increase was driven largely by higher receipts through smaller terminals rather than by a jump at India's two biggest Russian-crude receiving hubs, Jamnagar and Paradip.

Imports through HMEL Mundra rose 58 percent from June, while receipts at Indian Oil's Vadinar SMPL terminal increased 35 percent. Mumbai-bound volumes rose 37 percent.

By contrast, imports through Jamnagar were broadly unchanged, while Paradip volumes fell 22 percent.

That means the July record was not simply a consequence of higher Russian crude flows into India's largest refining complex. Additional volumes were spread across a wider set of receiving points, more than offsetting the decline at Paradip.

That diversification is significant because it suggests the increase in Russian crude intake was not dependent on a single refinery or terminal.

The more sensitive part of the story: refined products

India's role in the Russian oil trade extends beyond buying crude.

Its large refining complexes can process different grades of crude and convert them into products that can subsequently enter international markets. This has created a particularly sensitive channel for Russian oil: Russian crude can reach sanctioning countries indirectly after being processed in third countries.

CREA estimates that refineries in India, Turkiye, Brunei and Georgia that use Russian crude exported €633 million worth of oil products to countries imposing sanctions on Russia in July.

Of that, €214 million went to the European Union, €184 million to Australia and €234 million to the United States.

CREA estimated that €284 million of those exports were refined from Russian crude.

India was a significant contributor. Five cargoes from Indian refineries using Russian crude were unloaded at EU ports in July, despite the European Union's ban on imports of oil products made from Russian crude that took effect on January 21.

Shipments to the US also originated from India's Jamnagar refinery.

The data does not mean that all products exported by Indian refineries are Russian in origin. Rather, it highlights the increasingly complicated supply chains through which Russian crude can be transformed into refined products and subsequently reach markets that restrict direct imports of Russian oil.

Jamnagar remains central

Jamnagar is particularly important to this trade because of the scale and sophistication of its refining operations. CREA estimates that Russian crude accounted for about 35 percent of Jamnagar's feedstock in the three months through July.

The refinery subsequently shipped refined products to the US in July, alongside shipments from Turkiye's STAR refinery and Georgia's Kulevi refinery.

This is where India's position becomes more strategically important.

India is no longer merely a destination for Russian barrels displaced from European markets. Its refining capacity allows Russian crude to be converted into higher-value products that can move through a much broader global market.

Russia is getting more dependent on Asian demand

The record Indian intake also comes at a difficult time for Russia's downstream oil industry.

Russian oil-product loadings fell 23 percent in July to 4.7 million tonnes, their lowest level on record and less than half the 9.6 million tonnes loaded in July 2025.

Russian crude export revenues, meanwhile, were broadly flat in July at €392 million a day. A 21 percent monthly decline in pipeline-crude earnings was offset by a 7 percent increase in seaborne crude revenue.

The average price of Russia's Urals crude fell 3 percent in July to $60.22 a barrel, according to CREA. That remained well above the $44.10-a-barrel G7 and EU price cap that came into effect in February 2026.

The divergence is telling: Russia's refined-product export business is under greater pressure, while crude continues to find strong demand from Asian refiners, particularly India.

For India, the equation remains commercial

India's continued purchases are best understood through the economics of refining and energy security rather than simply through geopolitics.

Since 2022, Russian crude has become an important component of the Indian refining basket. The ability of Indian refiners to process a wide range of crude grades gives them flexibility to optimise feedstock costs and refinery margins.

But the July numbers also expose a growing strategic dependency.

With Russian crude accounting for more than half of India's total crude imports in July, any disruption to Russian supply, shipping, insurance, payment channels or sanctions compliance could have a much larger impact than it would have had several years ago.

At the same time, Russia's reliance on India as a major outlet means Moscow has a strong commercial incentive to keep those barrels flowing.

The result is a relationship that has moved well beyond the opportunistic purchases that followed the Ukraine war.

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India has become one of the principal destinations for Russian crude — and, increasingly, an important refining hub through which Russian-origin oil can re-enter global markets in processed form.

That makes the July record more than another monthly import milestone. It is evidence of how profoundly the post-2022 reshaping of global oil flows has altered India's position in the international energy trade.

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