Indian refineries cut Rosneft purchases for December, — Bloomberg

Strengthening Western sanctions are forcing Indian refiners to reconsider their dependence on Russian raw materials.

Five major Indian refiners — including Reliance Industries, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum, Mangalore Refinery and HPCL-Mittal Energy — did not make any purchases of Russian oil with delivery in December. Bloomberg reports this with reference to sources.

Against the backdrop of Western sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil, Indian companies are trying to avoid the risks and complications associated with compliance with the sanctions regime. The only exceptions are Indian Oil Corp. (IOC) and Nayara Energy: the first chose suppliers outside the sanctions lists, while the second is associated with Rosneft and continues to depend on Russian raw materials.

The change in procurement policy is also associated with negotiations between India and the United States, within the framework of which New Delhi agreed to expand purchases of American oil. IOC already plans to buy up to 24 million barrels from the US for the first quarter of 2026, and Hindustan Petroleum recently purchased 4 million barrels of US and Middle Eastern oil for January.

India, which imported more than a third of its oil from Russia this year, is now intensifying negotiations with suppliers from the Persian Gulf. According to Bloomberg, representatives of state-owned companies held meetings with Saudi Aramco and ADNOC as part of an industry conference in Abu Dhabi – and have already received guarantees of new supply volumes.

Despite the fact that traders are offering Russian oil at a discount of $ 3-4 per barrel, Indian importers are currently extremely cautious – the difficulty of checking logistics chains for the participation of sanctioned structures is significantly restraining demand.

Meanwhile, on the night of November 11, the Ukrainian Defense Forces struck the Russian JSC Morskoy Neftyanoy Terminal in Feodosia and the Saratov refinery.