As the Nayara Energy, India’s second largest private refinery, decided to halt its operations for 35 days due to some maintenance work, the reports have
suggested that India could lose nearly 8% of its refining power. Nayara Energy in a response to Times Now's query over the matter has said, "there will be no pump shut down or halt. It’s a planned maintenance turnaround. There are reserves for 40 days and no pump will go dry. "We assure our customers that we are fully focused onmeeting India's energy needs by maintaining a consistent supply of high-quality fuels. Our 7000+ retail network continues to operate normally, with no interruptions in service across our outlets. Further our refinery turnaround has been meticulously planned and we remain fully equipped to ensure that there will be no shortfall in fuel supplies during this period," Nayara Energy said in a statement. Notably, Nayara's large portion of output is sold within the domestic market. Its exports have declined after the sanctions last year. A considerable share of production is supplied to state-run refiners that market more fuel than they produce, while the remaining volumes are distributed through Nayara’s network of nearly 7,000 fuel retail outlets. Last year, European Union had imposed sanctions on Nayara Energy over the exports of refined petroleum products derived from Russian crude, financial and shipping restrictions, and a dynamic price cap on Russian crude. Nayara Energy had condemned the sanctions and said, "We categorically state that this unilateral move by the European Union is founded on baseless assertions, representing an undue extension of authority that ignores both international law and the sovereignty of India. It is to be noted that while many European countries continue to import Russian energy through various sources, they take a high moral ground by chastising and sanctioning an Indian asset for processing Russian crude largely used by its domestic population of 1.4 billion Indians and businesses. Nayara's imports rose triple digits in 2023, when it imported 226 kbd of crude from the region, followed by 273 kbd in 2024 and 302 kbd in 2025, data from Kpler showed. As per a JM Financial note, India purchased about 30 million barrels of Russian crude after receiving a temporary waiver from the United States, allowing refiners to access discounted oil. United States has temporarily eased restrictions on India’s purchase of Russian crude oil, granting a 30-day waiver that allows Indian refiners to buy shipments currently stranded at sea. India became the largest buyer of seaborne Russian crude after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, benefiting from steep discounts on the Urals crude benchmark. On Thursday, Russia’s Rosneft-backed Nayara Energy, had raised petrol prices by Rs 5 a litre and diesel by Rs 3/litre, due to the surge in global oil prices. Nayara Energy has decided to pass on part of the increase in input costs to consumers.
Government cuts excise duty:
The central government amid the rising global crisis of crude oil, in an order reduced the Special Additional Excise Duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 10 per litre each. This, in effect, has brought down the duty on petrol to Rs 3 and on diesel to nil.
Earlier, on Thursday, the central government has also said India has about 60 days of oil stock cover, adding that there is no shortage of petrol, diesel, or LPG, calling reports of shortages as a "deliberate misinformation campaign" aimed at triggering panic buying.
Separately, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) put out posts to say their petrol pumps were operating normally and there was no shortage of any fuels.
