Role reversal: India supplies 70% of Russia’s fuel imports in August, says CREA

Fresh updates from the financial markets indicate that New Delhi emerged as Moscow’s top fuel supplier in August as Ukrainian drone strikes crippled Russia’s energy infrastructure, even as India’s imports of Russian crude eased 24 percent from July’s record highs.

India accounted for 70 percent of Russia’s oil-product imports in August, supplying 120,000 tonnes of petrol valued at €78 million, the European think tank Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) has stated.

The role reversal comes as BRICS' New Delhi Declaration, adopted at the September 12-13 summit hosted by India, condemned “unilateral economic sanctions” and weaponisation of essential global energy supply chains for political leverage.

To ease domestic shortages, Moscow has begun importing significant volumes of oil products refined abroad, especially from India, some of which are derived from Russian crude.  Russia imported 172,000 tonnes of oil products valued at €114 million ($131.84 million) during the month.

The entire cargo was loaded at the Vadinar refinery and sold by EU-sanctioned Nayara Energy and bought by Rosneft, CREA stated.

“Russia is as a result paying a refinery that it partly owns to process its own crude into fuel it can no longer produce domestically before shipping it back halfway around the world,” the think tank stated.

Rosneft holds 49.13 percent in Nayara Energy, and Vadinar took 100 percent of its crude from Russia in the first eight months of 2026, up from 81 percent in 2025, CREA stated.

Each cargo exported from Vadinar was transferred between vessels in a ship-to-ship operation at the Damietta Lightering Zone off Egypt before unloading at Russia’s Arctic port of Beloe More.

These cargoes moved on a sanctioned tanker and four of the six vessels involved had flown a false flag at some point in the past two years, CREA claimed.

Russian oil imports decline 25% to $4.74 billion in August

India’s import of Russian oil declined by 25 percent in August to €4.1 billion ($4.74 billion) from record highs of €5.5 billion ($6.36 billion) in the previous month.

The slide follows the US Senate's nod to a bill that imposes up to 100 percent tariffs on Russian crude importers, including India, China, and Hungary. The bill goes to the House of Representatives later the current week.

Still, India remained the second-largest buyer of Russian fossil fuels, importing €4.8 billion ($5.55 billion) in hydrocarbons. China topped the list with imports worth €8.4 billion ($9.71 billion).

Crude constituted 87 percent of India’s purchases, totalling €4.1 billion. Oil products amounted to €258 million ($298.38 million) and coal at €379 million ($438.32 million) constituted the remainder of New Delhi’s monthly energy imports from Russia, the note stated.

Imports by India’s largest Russian crude-importing facilities — Nayara Energy’s Vadinar refinery and Indian Oil’s Paradip refinery — remained high in August, the think tank stated.

In contrast, Indian Oil's Vadinar SMPL installation imported 48 percent less Russian crude in August compared to the previous month.

Russian imports at smaller refineries such as HMEL Mundra Oil Terminal decreased 34 percent.

Urals discount to Brent steady at $22

In August, the average price of Russia’s Urals-grade crude rose by 23 percent month-on-month to $69.9 a barrel, significantly elevated than the EU and UK price cap of $44.1 a barrel.

CREA stated the Strait of Hormuz blockade has delivered a substantial lift to Russia’s fossil fuel export earnings.

In the six months since the US–Israel strikes on Iran, elevated oil and gas prices have increased Russia’s seaborne export revenues by an estimated $35.9 billion (equivalent to €31 billion), it stated.

The Urals crude discount to global benchmark Brent held steady at 24 percent, or $22 a barrel, in August, as last month.