Reliance Industries has strongly rejected a Bloomberg report dated January 2 which claimed that three oil tankers carrying about 2.2 million barrels of Russian Urals crude were on their way to its Jamnagar refinery. The company said no such shipments have arrived in the past three weeks and none are scheduled for January.

“A news report in Bloomberg claiming ‘three vessels laden with Russian Oil are heading for Reliance Industries Limited’s Jamnagar refinery’ is blatantly untrue,” Reliance Industries said in a statement shared on X (formerly Twitter).

The company further clarified that, “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”.

Dispute linked to US sanctions on Russian oil firms

This disagreement comes at a time when the United States has imposed sanctions on major Russian oil producers such as Rosneft and Lukoil since October 2025. Following the sanctions, Reliance had briefly paused Russian oil imports and later resumed buying crude from non-sanctioned sources for domestic refining, as per the report. 

The Bloomberg report, while noting Reliance’s earlier denial, said it relied on tanker tracking data from analytics firm Kpler.

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What did the Bloomberg report claim?

According to Bloomberg, at least three tankers carrying Russian crude were showing Reliance Industries Ltd.’s Jamnagar refinery on India’s west coast as their next destination, after the company restarted some purchases for domestic production.

The report added that the vessels, loaded with nearly 2.2 million barrels of Urals crude, were signaling the Jamnagar complex and were expected to deliver their cargo early this month, based on Kpler data.

Bloomberg also said that after initially stepping back following the US decision to blacklist Rosneft PJSC and Lukoil PJSC, Reliance announced in November that it would stop using Russian crude at the export-focused section of its refinery.

Trump threatens new tariffs on India over Russian oil

India, which has been a major buyer of oil from the OPEC+ producer in recent years, has faced criticism from US President Donald Trump and senior members of his administration over its trade with Russia. The report said this pressure and uncertainty have pushed Indian refiners to reduce purchases, with imports falling to a three-year low last month.

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Trump on January 5 once again warned that India could face higher tariffs for continuing to buy Russian oil, according to a Reuters report. While speaking to reporters, he said, “We could raise tariffs on India if they don’t help on Russian oil issue”.

At the same time, Trump struck a friendly note towards India. He described Prime Minister Narendra Modi as “a good guy” and said that India “wanted to make me happy”.