India’s crude oil purchases from Russia more than tripled in March to 5.3 billion euros as volumes doubled and a surge in oil prices pushed up the import bill, a PTI report stated, quoting data from a European think tank.
According to data from the European think tank Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), India was back to a buying binge in March after a drop in purchases in February.
“India was the second-highest buyer of Russian fossil fuels in March 2026, importing a total of 5.8 billion euros of Russian hydrocarbons. Crude oil products constituted 91 percent of India’s purchases, totaling 5.3 billion euros,” the report said.
The remaining 337 million euros in coal and 178.5 million euros in oil products constituted their monthly imports, the report claimed.
According to the CREA report, in February, India was the third-largest importer, purchasing Russian hydrocarbons worth 1.8 billion euros. Crude oil accounted for the largest share at 81 percent, or 1.4 billion euros, followed by coal at 223 million euros and oil products at 121 million euros.
“While India’s total crude imports recorded a 4 percent reduction in March, Russian imports doubled,” CREA said.
Key purchase triggers
The spurt in volumes followed the United States granting of a one-month sanctions waiver on Russian oil, covering cargoes already at sea and shipments on previously sanctioned vessels. The move was to ease prices that had spiked after Washington waged war against Iran.
The waiver led state refiners that had previously paused Russian oil purchases to resume imports from Moscow.
“The biggest shift (in March) was in state-owned refineries’ imports from Russia, which saw a massive 148 percent month-on-month increase,” CREA said.
“Their imports were in fact 72 percent higher than March 2025, presumably due to Russian barrels being more available in the spot market, which serves as the primary source of imports for them.” The state-owned Mangalore and Visakhapatnam refineries had halted Russian imports at the end of November 2025, but resumed purchases in March 2026.
“Private refineries, meanwhile, registered a more modest 66 percent month-on-month increase, but remained lower than the same time last year,” the report said.
Largest Russian oil buyers
In March, China bought 51 percent of Russia’s crude exports, followed by India (38 percent), Turkiye (6 percent), and the European Union (1.8 percent). In February, India was the third-largest importer of Russian oil behind China and Turkiye.
“While India’s Russian crude imports recorded a 19 percent reduction in February, total imports saw a more modest 9 percent reduction. Russia was still India’s biggest crude oil supplier in February, with imports constituting 20 percent of the total share,” the think tank said.
According to CREA, Russia is heavily reliant on Asian markets to sell its oil, with 90 per cent of its total exports of crude delivered to China and India in the first quarter of 2026.
Despite the EU’s ban on imports of oil products made from Russian crude on January 21, 2026, 14 shipments of oil products from refineries using Russian crude – identified as high risk under EU guidance – have unloaded at EU ports in March.
“Nine of these shipments departed from Turkiye’s refineries, four from India, and one from Georgia,” the report said.
“Some shipments from refineries running on Russian crude unloaded oil products at multiple European ports.” France was the largest recipient of shipments from these refineries running on Russian crude, unloading four shipments in March, followed by Cyprus.