Russia imports record fuel from India as Ukraine strikes hit refineries

Russia imported a record 172,000 tonnes of oil products in August, including gasoline refined from Russian crude at a refinery in India that is partly owned by Russia's Rosneft, as Ukrainian drone strikes disrupted Moscow's domestic refining capacity, according to a report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).

India supplied 70 per cent of Russia's oil product imports in August, including 120,000 tonnes of gasoline worth 78 million euros, CREA said in its monthly analysis of Russian fossil fuel exports and sanctions. The volume of Russian fuel imports was more than seven times the previous monthly record and three times the total imported during all of 2025.

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All of the gasoline from India was loaded at the Vadinar refinery and sold by EU-sanctioned Nayara Energy to Rosneft, CREA said. Rosneft owns 49.13 per cent of Nayara Energy, while Vadinar sourced all of its crude from Russia during the first eight months of 2026, compared with 81 per cent for all of 2025, according to the report.

"Russia is therefore paying a refinery that it partly owns to process its own crude into fuel it can no longer produce domestically, before shipping it back halfway around the world," CREA said.

The shipments underscore the impact of a sustained Ukrainian drone campaign against Russia's oil refineries and energy infrastructure, which has reduced domestic fuel production and contributed to shortages, according to CREA.

Each cargo of gasoline exported from Vadinar to Russia was transferred between vessels in a ship-to-ship operation off Egypt before being unloaded at Russia's Arctic port of Beloe More, the report said. All the vessels involved were sanctioned tankers, while four of the six had previously operated under false flags, CREA said.

Russia's gasoline imports surged even as the country, historically one of the world's largest exporters of refined petroleum products, faced declining exports. Gasoline accounted for 74 per cent of its total oil-product imports in August, compared with just 6 per cent on average between 2023 and 2025.

South Korea supplied a further 18,000 tonnes of oil products to Russia in August, mostly gasoil, while Egypt exported 25,000 tonnes of diesel worth 16 million euros, CREA said.

Russia's seaborne oil-product exports fell 21 per cent by volume in August, while revenues from products unloaded at destination ports dropped 32 per cent from July to 78 million euros per day - the lowest level since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Oil-product loadings at Russian ports have fallen for three consecutive months and were less than half their August 2025 level, CREA said.

Tuapse, Russia's fourth-largest oil-product export port before the full-scale invasion, did not load a single oil-product cargo for the third consecutive month after sustained Ukrainian drone attacks since May.

Ukrainian strikes also disrupted crude exports through Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. Crude loadings there fell 58 per cent month-on-month in August, while loadings stopped for nine consecutive days, the longest reported interruption at the port since the start of the full-scale invasion, according to CREA.

Overall, Russia's fossil-fuel export revenues fell 8 per cent in August to 604 million euros per day, while export volumes declined 7 per cent.

The fuel trade comes as India remained Russia's second-largest fossil-fuel customer in August, behind China.

India imported 4.8 billion euros of Russian hydrocarbons during the month, with crude oil accounting for 4.1 billion euros, or 87 per cent of its purchases, CREA said.

Indian imports of Russian crude nevertheless fell 24 per cent from July after reaching record levels in the previous two months. Imports at the Jamnagar refinery fell 15 per cent, while those at Vadinar rose 5 per cent and Paradip increased 1 per cent, according to the report.

China was Russia's largest fossil-fuel customer in August, accounting for 8.4 billion euros, or 51 per cent, of the revenues generated by its five largest buyers. Russian seaborne crude imports into China rose 16 per cent month-on-month and were 62 per cent above August 2025 levels, CREA said.

Despite the decline in export volumes, Russia continued to benefit from elevated global energy prices.

The average price of Russia's Urals crude rose 23 per cent in August to USD 69.90 a barrel, well above the G7 and European Union price cap of USD 44.10, according to CREA.

The research group estimated that higher oil and gas prices following the US-Israel strikes on Iran increased Russia's seaborne fossil-fuel export revenues by about 31 billion euros in the six months after the strikes.