Reliance Industries Ltd, operator of the world’s largest single-site oil refining complex and until recently India’s biggest buyer of Russian crude, said on Tuesday it has not received any Russian oil cargo in nearly three weeks and does not expect any deliveries in January, rejecting a Bloomberg report.
“A news report in Bloomberg claiming ‘three vessels laden with Russian Oil are heading for Reliance Industries Limited’s Jamnagar refinery’ is blatantly untrue,” the company said in a statement in the early hours of Tuesday.
“Reliance Industries’s Jamnagar 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, adding that “We are deeply pained that those claiming to be at the forefront of fair journalism chose to ignore the denial by RIL of buying any Russian oil to be delivered in January and published a wrong report tarnishing our image.”
The denial comes amid US President Donald Trump's warning of even more tariff action against India over its ties with Moscow.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday while travelling from Florida to Washington DC, Trump said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was aware of his displeasure over India’s energy trade with Russia.
Trump said Washington could raise tariffs on India “very quickly” if New Delhi does not curb purchases of Russian oil, directly linking the threat to efforts to squeeze Moscow over the Ukraine war.
“Modi is a good guy. He knew I was not happy, and it was important to make me happy,” Trump told reporters. “They do trade, and we can raise tariffs on them very quickly,” he said when asked about India’s Russian oil imports.
India’s exports already face among the highest tariff barriers in the US after Trump doubled duties to 50 per cent, effective from August 27, 2025, citing India’s purchases of Russian oil.
Some analysts, however, maintain that the punitive tariffs on Delhi have less to do with Moscow and are meant more as trump card in trade-agreement negotiations.
India is projected to buy an average of 1 million barrels per day of Russian crude in January, down from 1.9 million barrels per day before US sanctions on major producers Rosneft and Lukoil.
India, the world’s third-largest oil importer, became the biggest buyer of discounted Russian crude after Western nations shunned Moscow following its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Earlier this month, the government began collecting weekly data from refineries on Russian and US oil purchases following a request from the Prime Minister’s Office, Reuters reported.
Reliance had earlier been the largest Indian importer of Russian crude, aided by a long-term supply partnership with Rosneft involving around half a million barrels per day for Jamnagar.
On November 20, 2025, it said it had halted the use of Russian crude at its export-only refinery to comply with European Union sanctions.
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.
Sikka is also the port that is used by non-Reliance companies.
Industry sources cited by PTI 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 20 November, 2025.
"From December 1, all product exports from the SEZ refinery will be obtained from non-Russian crude oil."
Reliance is believed to have purchased about half of the 1.7-1.8 million barrels per day of discounted Russian crude shipped to India prior to that.
