NO RUSSIAN DELIVERIES FOR WEEKS: RELIANCE RESPONDS TO REPORTS AFTER TRUMP’S COMMENTS

Tue 06 January 2026:

Reliance Industries Ltd, which runs the world’s largest single-location oil refining complex and was until recently India’s top purchaser of Russian crude, announced on Tuesday, January 6, that it has not taken delivery of any Russian oil cargoes in nearly three weeks, with no shipments anticipated for the month of January, PTI reported.

On November 20, 2025, Reliance had said it had halted the use of Russian crude at its export-only refinery in Jamnagar, Gujarat, as the company moves to comply with European Union sanctions.

Prior to that, Reliance was India’s largest buyer of Russian oil, which it processes and turns into fuel, such as petrol and diesel, at its giant oil refining complex at Jamnagar.

The complex is made up of two refineries — one SEZ unit from which fuels are exported to the European Union, the US, and other markets, and an older unit that primarily caters to the domestic market.

The European Union — a big market for Reliance — has imposed wide-ranging sanctions targeting Russia’s energy revenues, including measures that restrict the import and sale of fuels produced from Russian crude oil.

To comply with these, Reliance had stopped processing Russian crude oil at its only-for-exports (SEZ) refinery.

On Tuesday, it called a Bloomberg report claiming “three vessels laden with Russian oil are heated for Reliance’s Jamnagar refinery as “blatantly untrue”.

“Reliance Industries’ Jamangar refinery has not received any cargo of Russian oil at its refinery in the past three weeks approx. and is not expecting any Russian crude oil deliveries in January,” the company said in a statement.

Statement by Reliance Industries Limited:

A news report in Bloomberg claiming “three vessels laden with Russian Oil are heading for Reliance Industries Limited’s Jamnagar refinery” is blatantly untrue.

Reliance Industries’s Jamnagar refinery has not received any cargo of…

— Reliance Industries Limited (@RIL_Updates) January 5, 2026

The statement comes after United States President Donald Trump issued a fresh warning to India over its continued imports of Russian oil and claimed Prime Minister Narendra Modi “knew he was not happy.”

Speaking to a reporter on board Air Force One on Sunday, January 4, Trump said, “They wanted to make me happy, basically… PM Modi’s a very good man. He’s a good guy. He knew I was not happy. It was important to make me happy. They do trade, and we can raise tariffs on them very quickly.”

#WATCH | On India’s Russian oil imports, US President Donald J Trump says, “… They wanted to make me happy, basically… PM Modi’s a very good man. He’s a good guy. He knew I was not happy. It was important to make me happy. They do trade, and we can raise tariffs on them very… pic.twitter.com/OxOoj69sx3

— ANI (@ANI) January 5, 2026

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) denied any such directive was issued to oil companies and maintained that energy policy is based purely on national interest and energy security.

The Bloomberg report had cited data analytics firm Kpler to say at least three tankers, laden with nearly 2.2 million barrels of urals (a grade of Russian crude), were headed towards the Sikka port — through which Jamnagar refining complex sources a bulk of its crude imports.

However, Sikka is also the port that is used by non-Reliance companies.

__________________________________________________________________________

https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAtNxX8fewmiFmN7N22

__________________________________________________________________________

Industry sources said the three cargoes cited in the report were probably for Bina refinery of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and not Reliance.

“We have stopped importing Russian crude oil into our SEZ refinery with effect from November 20,” a Reliance spokesperson had said in a statement on November 20, 2025.

“From December 1, all product exports from the SEZ refinery will be obtained from non-Russian crude oil.”

Reliance purchased about half of the 1.7-1.8 million barrels per day of discounted Russian crude shipped to India prior to that.

India became the second-largest buyer of discounted Russian seaborne crude after the Ukraine war began in 2022, drawing criticism from Western nations that have imposed sanctions on Russia’s energy sector, arguing that oil revenues help finance Moscow’s war effort.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

__________________________________________________________________________

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

WhatsApp CHANNEL
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAtNxX8fewmiFmN7N22