Reliance Industries Ltd, India’s largest private refiner, is reportedly reselling some Middle Eastern crude bought last month after halting purchases from Russia’s Rosneft following U.S. sanctions.
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Dado Ruvic
India’s Reliance is attempting to re-sell some Middle Eastern crude it snapped up last month to replace Russian oil because of Western sanctions, trade sources said.
The refiner halted purchases from Moscow last month after supplier Rosneft was sanctioned by the United States and it bought at least 12 million barrels of spot crude from the Middle East and the Americas, they added.
The Indian conglomerate, which has a long-term deal to buy nearly 500,000 barrels a day of crude from Russian major Rosneft , had said it would abide by sanctions against Moscow while maintaining ties with current oil suppliers.
Britain, the European Union and the United States have imposed sanctions on Russia over its war in Ukraine, with fresh U.S. sanctions targeting its two top oil producers, Rosneft and Lukoil.
The United States has given companies until November 21 to wind down transactions with the Russian oil producers.
Diversifying supply sources
To replace Russian supplies, Reliance Industries Ltd has bought 1 million barrels of Abu Dhabi Murban crude, 2 million barrels of Upper Zakum, 500,000 barrels of Qatar Land, the sources said.
It has also bought 3 million barrels of Qatari al-Shaheen and Khafji, 2 million barrels of Iraqi Basrah Medium, 2 million barrels of Brazilian Tupi and Sapi crude, and 2 million barrels of U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude, they added.
The Middle Eastern grades are to load in December, while the Brazilian oil will be delivered in December, they said. WTI will arrive at Reliance’s Sikka port in January, the sources said.
Sellers include Totsa, the trading arm of TotalEnergies , BP, Gunvor, Aramco Trading, Repsol, Petrobras, Eni and Vitol, they added. The sources declined to be named as they are not authorised to speak to media.
Reliance is likely to have purchased even more spot cargoes in trades which were unknown to the market, traders said, estimating that it had probably bought about 16 million barrels in total.
All the sources spoke on condition of anonymity as the matter is a sensitive one.
Reliance could not immediately be reached for comment. Trading companies typically do not comment on commercial deals.
“They probably bought more and we’re missing incremental term (supply) for instance,” one of the sources said, adding that the refiner has probably sought more term supplies from Saudi Aramco, Abu Dhabi National Oil Co, Kuwait Petroleum Corp and Iraq’s SOMO.
Re-selling for margin
However, Reliance has been offering to re-sell some of these cargoes, traders said.
It sold 1 million barrels of December-loading Basra Medium crude to a Greek refiner, traders said, adding that the sale was probably opportunistic, as the refiner had sold at a profit.
It was not immediately clear if Reliance had sold more cargoes. One trader said Reliance offered Middle Eastern cargoes at discounts to official selling prices.
Another said it would be difficult for Reliance to re-sell Middle Eastern crude profitably due to high freight costs and as producers have cut prices this month.
The EU has previously said that from January 21 it will not take fuel produced at refineries that received or processed Russian oil 60 days prior to the bill of lading date. Europe accounts for 28% of Reliance’s exports.
Known as a swing supplier, Reliance has the flexibility to sell products to Asia, Europe, Africa or the Americas to fetch the highest prices, traders said.
Reliance, controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, is the biggest Indian buyer of Russian crude.
Published on November 6, 2025