New Delhi: India has joined the major countries supplying petrol to Russia as fuel production at Russian refineries has been affected due to Ukraine's drone attacks. This information has been obtained from ship monitoring data. According to data from energy analyst company Vortexa, Russia's seaborne petrol imports reached a record of about 125,000 barrels per day in August. This is equivalent to approximately 4.7 lakh tonnes for the entire month. Due to continuous drone attacks on Russian refineries, there has been a huge decline in domestic fuel production.
Nearly 1 million barrels of petrol went from India to Russia in two months
Continuous drone attacks on Russian refineries have had an impact on domestic fuel production there. According to trade sources, Indian refineries have sent about 1 million barrels of petrol to Russia in the last two months.
Gujarat-based Vadinar Refinery has played a major role in this supply. It is operated by Nayara Energy. Russia's state petroleum company Rosneft has a 50 percent stake in Nayara Energy.
Russian crude oil came to India, went back after being transformed into petrol?
After the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, India has significantly increased its purchase of crude oil from Russia. In June and July, India imported more than 26 lakh barrels of Russian crude oil daily. In February this figure was around 1 million barrels per day.
During these months, Russian crude oil accounted for more than half of India's total crude oil imports. In such a situation, there is a possibility that some petrol exported to Russia may also have been produced by refining Russian crude oil in India.
That is, a situation is being created in which the crude oil coming to India from Russia is being refined and returning back to Russia in the form of petrol.
Petrol production in Russia decreased by 70 percent
Russia is among the world's largest crude oil exporters, but its refining capacity has suffered major damage due to Ukraine's drone attacks. Due to 70 percent decline in domestic petrol production, Russia is now forced to import it. Along with this, restrictions on fuel sales also continue in the country.
Russia extends ban on petrol and diesel exports
According to Vortexa, the countries supplying petrol to Russia in August included India, Turkey and Morocco. Russia in July extended a complete ban on petrol exports for both producers and non-producers till the end of January 2027. The ban on export of diesel has also been extended till September 1, 2026. About 55 percent of Russia's August petrol imports, or about 2.6 lakh tonnes, were goods transported on banned ships.
According to Vortexa, all cargoes of petrol arriving in Russia from India in August were brought on restricted fleet vessels and reached Russia through ship-to-ship (STS) transfers in the Mediterranean Sea. About 40 percent of Russia's total gasoline imports in August arrived via ship-to-ship transfers. During most of these transfers the ships kept their Automatic Identification System (AIS) off. Meanwhile, Russia's diesel exports have also been hit hard.
According to Vortexa, Russia's marine diesel/gasoil exports in August stood at about 1.5 lakh barrels per day as of August 25. This has been stable on a monthly basis, but is much lower than the figure of 6.10 lakh barrels per day for the same period a year ago. Also, this is 81 percent less than the five-year average level. According to Vortexa, there have been about 32 attacks on Russian refineries in July and August.
Also read: Mustard rises, soybean-cottonseed weak, Know the latest prices of oil and oilseeds