U.S. President Donald Trump singled out India over its importing of Russian oil last month, raising its tariffs to 50% to punish trade that he said had helped fuel “the Russian War Machine.” Less than a week later, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi issued a striking diplomatic response, by traveling to China for the first time in seven years and meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping.
The two events combined to present a sudden and very public strategic shift between the U.S. and India, two longstanding economic allies. But the rupture has roots in the global oil reshuffling that followed Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which saw India go from a negligible buyer of Russian crude to a crucial one.
How does that burgeoning Russia-to-India oil trade flow? Through a review of public records, Kharon documented two common, often overlapping patterns:
But when Russian producers offered crude oil at steep discounts, India pounced. As of 2025, media outlets have reported, India is Russia’s second-largest buyer of crude, behind only China—which had pounced, too. Trump pressed the EU this week to impose 100% tariffs on both as a result.
Enforcement escalation: The EU has designated hundreds of vessels and companies for supporting Russia’s oil-shipping “shadow fleet,” but its sanctions package in July took sharper aim at India’s role, including by designating Nayara Energy, an Indian refinery part-owned by Rosneft. The EU called it “a major refiner of Russian crude oil” and “a major customer of the shadow fleet.”
Zoom in: It wasn’t just the price that made India’s transition appealing. It was also chemistry.
Citing shipping data sourced by Finland’s Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), NPR reported on Monday that more than 90% of U.S. imports of Indian oil products in the first half of this year came from one Indian refinery. That refinery, according to CREA’s data, gets nearly half its crude oil from Russia.
At least three companies that ONGC majority-owns are involved in the Russian oil trade: ONGC Videsh Limited, Mangalore Refinery And Petrochemicals Limited and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited.
Key example: According to bills of lading, Hindustan Petroleum received at least $2 billion USD of petroleum oils between November 2022 and March 2025 from Gazprom Neft, a subsidiary of Russia’s majority-state-owned energy giant Gazprom.
The two events combined to present a sudden and very public strategic shift between the U.S. and India, two longstanding economic allies. But the rupture has roots in the global oil reshuffling that followed Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which saw India go from a negligible buyer of Russian crude to a crucial one.
How does that burgeoning Russia-to-India oil trade flow? Through a review of public records, Kharon documented two common, often overlapping patterns:
- Trade directly between Russian state-owned enterprises and Indian state-owned enterprises (SOEs).
- A reliance on third-country brokers and logistics operators as key intermediaries.
Big picture
When the G7 and EU imposed their price caps on Russian oil effective December 2022, Moscow sought alternative customers to offset its losses. India at the time sourced predominantly from the Middle East.But when Russian producers offered crude oil at steep discounts, India pounced. As of 2025, media outlets have reported, India is Russia’s second-largest buyer of crude, behind only China—which had pounced, too. Trump pressed the EU this week to impose 100% tariffs on both as a result.
Enforcement escalation: The EU has designated hundreds of vessels and companies for supporting Russia’s oil-shipping “shadow fleet,” but its sanctions package in July took sharper aim at India’s role, including by designating Nayara Energy, an Indian refinery part-owned by Rosneft. The EU called it “a major refiner of Russian crude oil” and “a major customer of the shadow fleet.”
Zoom in: It wasn’t just the price that made India’s transition appealing. It was also chemistry.
- Russian oil blends are heavy and highly sulfuric, similar to the Gulf blends that India has long purchased. That means that most Indian refineries’ equipment is built to handle Russian crude more readily than light and “sweet” blends, like West Texas Intermediate.
Citing shipping data sourced by Finland’s Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), NPR reported on Monday that more than 90% of U.S. imports of Indian oil products in the first half of this year came from one Indian refinery. That refinery, according to CREA’s data, gets nearly half its crude oil from Russia.
Pattern 1: State-owned to state-owned
India’s domestic oil scene is dominated by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), the country’s largest state-owned oil producer. In a 2022 corporate brochure, ONGC stated that it contributed more than 75% to Indian domestic oil production.At least three companies that ONGC majority-owns are involved in the Russian oil trade: ONGC Videsh Limited, Mangalore Refinery And Petrochemicals Limited and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited.
Key example: According to bills of lading, Hindustan Petroleum received at least $2 billion USD of petroleum oils between November 2022 and March 2025 from Gazprom Neft, a subsidiary of Russia’s majority-state-owned energy giant Gazprom.
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An extra wrinkle: At least one Indian state-owned enterprise has used a Russia-based subsidiary to facilitate its oil trading. According to trade records, ONGC Videsh Limited’s branch in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, in Russia’s Far East, sent more than 200 million kilograms of crude oil to Mumbai-based Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited in September 2022.
In the news: Reuters reported in December that three large, Dubai-based trading houses have increasingly edged out smaller middlemen to dominate the flow of Russian crude into India.
Dubai-based Nexus Oil Trading FZCO, founded only in 2022, has been another active player. And its trade illustrates the chain from end to end:
- According to its annual financial report, Bharat Petroleum is itself owned by the presidency of India. Between July 2023 and January 2024, bills of lading say, it also received about 3.5 billion kilograms in crude oil directly from Rosneft.
Pattern 2: Third-country middlemen
But state-owned Indian refiners haven’t sustained these import levels on their own. Kharon’s review of hundreds of Russia-to-India oil shipments shows that foreign intermediaries, including private firms in the UAE, have served as key conduits, arranging and channeling much of this trade.In the news: Reuters reported in December that three large, Dubai-based trading houses have increasingly edged out smaller middlemen to dominate the flow of Russian crude into India.
- One was Hinera Trading FZCO, which trade records show shipped Russia-specific crude blends (Eastern-Siberian Pacific Ocean and Russian Export Blend Crude Oil, or REBCO) to the aforementioned Hindustan Petroleum throughout late 2024.
- Another was Black Pearl Energy Trading LLC, which the U.S. sanctioned in January.
Dubai-based Nexus Oil Trading FZCO, founded only in 2022, has been another active player. And its trade illustrates the chain from end to end:
- According to shipping records, Rosneft shipped at least $4 billion of Russian crude to Nexus between June 2022 and August 2023.
- Nexus then shipped $340 million in REBCO to India’s Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited, another majority-state-owned outfit, between June 2023 and September 2023. It also shipped $298 million of REBCO to Bharat Petroleum between November 2024 and March 2025.
In brief
India’s large-scale trading in Russian oil might have spilled into full international view only in recent weeks, but the supply chains that power it have been developing for several years now, reflecting an increasingly fluid (and often obscured) global trade landscape.So far, however, U.S. pressure and EU sanctions don’t look to be deterring the India-Russia partnership.
“We will have to take a call which [supply source] suits us the best,” India’s finance minister told a local CNN news station last week.
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