Another first is Turkey displacing India as Russia’s second largest fossil fuel buyer in almost three years.
| Photo Credit:
YORUK ISIK

Recent sanctions by the US on Russia has started taking effect with India’s December 2025 crude oil imports from Moscow slipping to their lowest levels for the first time, since G7 countries imposed the $60 per barrel price cap on Urals grade (December 2022), as Reliance Industries (RIL) slashed its cargoes by half.

Another first is Turkey displacing India as Russia’s second largest fossil fuel buyer in almost three years.

Finland-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) said “India’s Russian crude imports recorded a sharp 29 per cent M-o-M reduction to the lowest volumes since implementation of the price cap policy. These drops occurred despite total imports growing marginally.”

These drops were led by sharp reductions in imports by the RIL-operated Jamnagar refinery (-49 per cent) and a 15 per cent reduction by state-owned refineries in December (2025), it added.

The US sanctions on Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil is the first serious attempt to check energy trade between New Delhi and Moscow. They came into effect on November 21, 2025. For instance, Russia’s monthly fossil fuel export revenues in December 2025 witnessed a 2 per cent M-o-M decline to around $580 million per day—the second lowest figure since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine (February 2022).

Sanctions effect

CREA pointed out that India was the third highest buyer of Russian fossil fuels, importing a total of around $2.68 billion of Russian hydrocarbons in December 2025. Crude oil constituted 78 per cent of India’s purchases totalling roughly $2.10 billion, coal ($495 million) and oil products ($96 million).

“These cuts were led largely by the Jamnagar refinery, which cut its imports from Russia by half in December (2025). The entirety of their imports were supplied by Rosneft, albeit from cargoes purchased before (the US) OFAC sanctions came into effect,” CREA added.

Turkey displaced India as the second largest importer, purchasing around $3 billion of Russian hydrocarbons in December. Refined oil products constituted the largest share at 44 per cent ($1.28 billion) followed by pipeline gas ($1.15 billion). Crude oil ($300 million) and coal ($261 million) constituted the remainder of their imports, the think tank pointed out.

In December, CREA said that five refineries in India, Turkey and Brunei that use Russian crude exported around $1.1 billion of oil products to sanctioning countries, of which almost one-third of the products were refined from Russian crude oil.

There was a 9 per cent M-o-M drop in refineries’ exports to sanctioning countries such as the US, the EU, the UK and Australia. The decrease was led chiefly by the EU and UK, who recorded monthly reductions of 26 per cent and 53 per cent, respectively.

In contrast to those two, CREA pointed out that exports to Australia ($331 million) increased by 9 per cent M-o-M in December. The biggest exporters to Australia were the Jamnagar refinery in India (around $154 million) and the Hengyi refinery in Brunei ($135 million).

“There was a 121 per cent increase (M-o-M) in exports to the US totalling around $220 million. These exports originated in the Jamnagar refinery and the Tupras Aliaga refinery in Turkey,” it added.

The EU floating price cap, which came into force on September 3, 2025, has been effected in a way that it will be 15 per cent lower than the average price of Russian Urals blend over the previous six months.

Published on January 13, 2026