India supplied 70% of Russia’s oil-product imports in August, shipping 120,000 tonne of petrol worth €78 million from Nayara Energy’s Vadinar refinery, as sustained Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries forced Moscow to increasingly buy back fuel processed from its own crude.
Russia imported a record 172,000 tonne of oil products worth €114 million during the month, more than seven times its previous monthly high and three times the volume imported during all of 2025, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA). Petrol accounted for 74% of Russia’s August product imports, compared with an average of just 6% during 2023-25.
India accounted for 94% of Russia’s petrol imports, with the entire 120,000 tonne loaded at Vadinar and sold by EU-sanctioned Nayara Energy to Rosneft. Rosneft owns 49.13% of Nayara, while the Vadinar refinery sourced 100% of its crude from Russia during January-August 2026, compared with 81% in 2025.
“Russia is therefore paying a refinery that it partly owns to process its own crude into fuel it can no longer produce domestically,” CREA said.
The flows mark a sharp expansion of a trade reversal already underway. Financial Express had earlier reported that India shipped 1.66 million barrels of gasoline to Russia during June-July, even as Moscow supplied Indian refiners around 2.5-2.6 million barrels per day of crude, effectively bringing the trade full circle.
CREA said each Vadinar cargo bound for Russia underwent a ship-to-ship transfer off Egypt before being discharged at the Arctic port of Beloe More. All tankers involved were sanctioned, while four of the six vessels had operated under false flags during the previous two years.
The surge in imports comes as Russia’s own product exports weaken. Seaborne oil-product export volumes fell 21% in August, while revenues from products unloaded at destination ports dropped 32% month-on-month to €78 million per day, the lowest since the start of the Ukraine war. Product loadings at Russian ports declined for the third consecutive month and were less than half their August 2025 level.
Tuapse, previously Russia’s fourth-largest product export port, loaded no cargo for the third consecutive month. Crude loadings at Novorossiysk also fell 58% month-on-month, with operations halted for nine consecutive days.
The reverse fuel trade, however, runs alongside India’s continued large-scale purchases of Russian energy. India remained Russia’s second-largest fossil-fuel customer after China, importing €4.8 billion of Russian hydrocarbons in August. Crude accounted for €4.1 billion, or 87%, while coal contributed €379 million and oil products €258 million.
Indian imports of Russian crude nevertheless fell 24% month-on-month after two record months. CREA said imports at Jamnagar declined 15%, while Vadinar rose 5% and Paradip increased 1%.
Russia’s overall fossil-fuel export revenues fell 8% to €604 million per day in August, while volumes declined 7%. However, higher global oil prices offered some cushion: Urals crude averaged $69.90 a barrel, up 23% month-on-month and well above the $44.10 EU-UK price cap.