Purchases of Russian oil by India has fallen 15 per cent to €4.5 billion or $5.27 billion from €5.3 billionor $6.26 billion recorded in March. According
to Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), a Helsinki-based think-tank data, the reduction in Russian oil imports was driven by reduced intake by Nayara Energy’s Vadinar refinery, which went under maintenance related shutdown starting April 9. Even so, India remained the second-largest buyer of oil from Moscow.“There was a substantial change in the installations’ unloading of Russian crude, with Vadinar and Jamnagar refineries’ imports decreasing by almost 92% and 38%, respectively, while the state-owned Indian Oil Vadinar’s increased by 87%,” the think-tank said. “The decline in Vadinar refinery’s Russian crude imports was driven by maintenance-related shutdowns beginning on 9 April 2026, as the refinery runs exclusively on Russian feedstock,” the report said. Analysts said the Indian refiners turned away from Russian oil if the US waiver on purchasing oil from Moscow is not extended beyond the May 16 deadline. While India has never stopped buying Russian oil, the US waiver allowed countries to buy oil from the sanctioned entities including Rosneft and Lukoil. Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, assured that India’s energy interests and Russian oil supplies to the country would remain unaffected despite ongoing geopolitical tensions and global competition over energy routes. “Their [US] goal is to seize everything, to seize all energy routes that are important. This goal is pretty clear and I'm confident that India understands what is happening,” Lavrov said. According to CREA data, India remained the second-largest buyer of Russian fossil-fuels last month, importing a total of €5 billion ($5.86 billion) of Russian hydrocarbons. Crude oil constituted 90% of India’s purchases, totalling €4.5 billion, followed by coal at €297 million ($347.83 million) and oil products at €209 million ($244.77 million).
