India’s overall crude oil imports declined on a monthly basis in April 2026 as Reliance Industries (RIL) and Nayara Energy Ltd limited their Russian purchases after the world’s third-largest consumer bought record volumes from Moscow a month earlier.

According to the Finland-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), India was the second-largest buyer of Russian fossil fuels in April, importing a total of €5 billion (around $5.82 billion) of hydrocarbons.

Crude oil constituted 90 per cent of India’s purchases, totalling €4.5 billion ($5.24 billion). Coal ($346 million) and oil products ($243 million) made up the remainder.

“India’s total crude import volumes recorded a 3.7 per cent reduction in April. This is partially explained by a 19.4 per cent month-on-month (m-o-m) decrease in Russian imports,” CREA said. There was a substantial change in unloading at refineries, with Vadinar and Jamnagar refineries’ Russian imports decreasing by almost 92 per cent and 38 per cent, respectively, while the state-owned Indian Oil Vadinar refinery’s imports increased by 87 per cent.

The decline in Russian crude imports at the Vadinar refinery was driven by maintenance-related shutdowns beginning on April 9, 2026, as the refinery runs exclusively on Russian feedstock.

The state-owned New Mangalore and Visakhapatnam refineries (MRPL) had stopped Russian imports at the end of November 2025, but purchases resumed in March 2026 and continued into April, with Visakhapatnam’s Russian imports increasing by 149 per cent m-o-m.

In contrast, India’s imports of Russian crude oil doubled m-o-m in March 2026 even as cumulative crude imports recorded a 4 per cent reduction that month.

The biggest shift was in state-owned refineries’ imports from Russia, which saw a massive 148 per cent increase in March 2026, presumably due to Russian barrels being more available in the spot market, which serve as their primary source of imports, CREA explained.

During March, private refiners such as RIL and Nayara Energy registered a more modest 66 per cent m-o-m increase, but volumes remained lower than the same period last year.

On Russian crude oil price dynamics during April 2026, CREA said the average price of Russia’s Urals crude rose further, up by 19 per cent m-o-m to $112.3 per barrel, remaining more than double the updated EU and UK price cap of $44.1 per barrel, which took effect on February 1, 2026.

“In April, the price discount of Urals-grade crude oil relative to the global benchmark Brent plummeted as demand for Russian crude increased following the extended US sanctions waiver, amid constraints on tanker availability and other market factors,” CREA explained.

While Russian crude prices have increased significantly, influenced by higher freight and insurance costs for the longer voyages involving sanctioned Russian crude, Free on Board (FOB) prices are likely still at a discount to Brent.

Published on May 20, 2026