Crude Oil

With the November 21 deadline now past, India's Russian crude inflows are easing but not collapsing as refiners pivot to non-sanctioned suppliers, tap alternatives and benefit from soft global prices

India and Russia are chasing a $100 billion trade goal, but India is staring at a $60 billion trade deficit driven largely by Russian oil.

Indian Rupee touched a new record low of 89.97 against the US dollar on December 1, 2025, amid delays in the India-US trade agreement, and limited RBI intervention

WTI plunged 2.5 per cent over the past five trading sessions to $58.05/bbl, shedding 5.5 per cent in the last month and more than 20 per cent since mid-June highs near $73/bbl

This month, India is expected to receive 1.87 million bpd of Russian crude, provisional data from Kpler showed

Washington's move last month to blacklist top oil producers Rosneft PJSC and Lukoil PJSC is arguably its most aggressive to date under the current administration

Reliance Industries has halted Russian crude oil imports for its export-oriented refinery in Jamnagar, shifting fully to alternative sources ahead of new US and EU restrictions.

India's Russian oil loadings at 3-yr low in Nov as refiners grow wary of US sanctions

Stoppage of Russian crude imports comes a day before US sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil kick in; however, RIL said it is honouring all previously-agreed shipments of Russian crude as of Oct 22

Fitch Ratings says sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil - which supply around 60% of India's Russian crude - may not materially affect OMC margins, though compliance challenges

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd has bought one million barrels of Basra Medium crude for January 1-7 delivery

Russian exporters are continuing to load crude onto tankers, but refiners are less willing to take the cargoes into their storage tanks

India's crude oil imports from the US rose to the highest level in October since March 2021 as refiners bought 593 thousand bpd of crude oil from Washington

The state-backed refiner, India's largest, is seeking grades from the US, Canada, Brazil and Latin America

The Furia was moving westward in a strait between Denmark and Germany when it turned around on Tuesday and sailed for a short distance before slowing down drastically, ship-tracking data showed

The catch is that this is still a find of hydrocarbon presence; whether the basin will actually yield natural gas is still unknown, and even it does, it could take a decade for commercialisation

Trump announced fresh sanctions on two of Russia's largest oil companies in a bid to stop the Ukraine war. But this is not likely to spell the end of Russian oil flows to India, a major buyer

Brent crude futures rose $1.29, or 2.1%, to $62.61 a barrel by 11:09 a.m. EDT (1509 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures climbed $1.34, or 2.34%, to $58.58

Trump reiterated that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told him India will stop buying Russian oil, while warning that New Delhi would continue paying "massive" tariffs if it did not do so

Overall imports dip to $60.7 bn from $71.2 bn last year