THE DAMAGE caused by Ukrainian strikes to its oil refining infrastructure has forced Russia — one of the biggest crude producers and refiners globally — to import gasoline, or petrol, including from faraway India.While a bulk of Russian imports of petrol are from neighbouring Belarus and Kazakhstan, India is estimated to have dispatched over 1 million barrels over June and July, ship tracking data indicates. According to experts, this is the first instance of Russia importing petrol from India.Trade sources said the trend has likely continued in August as well, although data is not yet available. Nayara Energy’s Vadinar refinery — which has significant Russian shareholding — is the main Indian supplier, they said. Meanwhile, large volumes of Russian crude continue to arrive in India to feed Indian refineries, including the Nayara Energy facility, which means that some of the gasoline being supplied to Russia is being derived from its own oil refined in India.This marks a change in the energy relationship between Moscow and New Delhi. For about four years now, India has been one of the top two buyers of Russian crude, the other being China. Russian oil, often sold at attractive prices after Western sanctions disrupted Moscow’s traditional European markets in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, now accounts for the lion’s share in India’s crude import basket.Read | Two Indian ships among 45 blacklisted by Iran for Strait of Hormuz ‘violations’Repeated Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian oil refineries, combined with routine refinery maintenance, strong summer season demand, and logistical bottlenecks, have compounded the problems for Moscow. Domestic supplies of both petrol and diesel are impacted, but the country is still relatively comfortable with regard to diesel as its refining system is geared to produce far more diesel than its consumption.Nevertheless, Moscow has responded with restrictions on diesel exports as well in a bid to have a comfortable cushion ahead of the winter season. Petrol, however, is a different story. Exports are out of the question and reports indicate that limits have been placed on the volume of petrol that can be supplied to a vehicle across numerous fuel stations in various regions of the country.“Gasoline has been particularly exposed. Under normal operating conditions, Russian refinery output broadly covers domestic demand with only limited surplus available for exports, leaving the market with relatively little buffer when refinery throughput falls…With refinery runs remaining depressed, Russia has responded by restricting product exports and played with product specifications across several barrels to protect domestic availability,” Sumit Ritolia, modelling and refining manager at commodity market analytics provider Kpler told The Indian Express.Story continues below this adAs per Kpler data, about 12,000 barrels per day (bps) of gasoline was exported from India to Russia in June, with the volumes jumping to about 21,000 bpd in July. Taken together, this amounts to close to a million barrels of petrol being sent to Russia during the two months. Additionally, some additional volumes are expected to have reached Russia from India through a series of ship-t0-ship transfers and vessels with undeclared destinations.“Most of the imported gasoline has come from Belarus. One of Belarus’s two refineries is 42% owned by a Russian consortium, and all the crude processed at both of them comes from Russia. Kazakhstan would be another nearby option, but it cannot supply significant volumes…(it) is a net importer. The seaborne trade is more interesting. So far, Russia appears to have received five gasoline cargoes…Three of them were cargoes of around 320,000–350,000 barrels from Vadinar,” Abu Dhabi-based energy analyst Natalia Katona told this newspaper.Another cargo arrived via Morocco’s Tangier terminal, although its original source is unclear as Morocco does not have an active refinery. Another cargo of around 250,000 barrels was shipped from Turkey’s Mersin port. Katona said that while there is no refinery near Mersin, a 500,000-barrel cargo from India had been discharged there about a week earlier. “I would therefore not be surprised if both the Tangier and Mersin cargoes were also of Indian origin,” she said.Experts and trade sources said that going forward, Russia is expected to start importing petrol from Turkish refineries as well, although India would certainly remain an important source for Russia during the shortage, given that Indian refineries have surplus volumes available for export. Nayara Energy, in particular, has petrol made from Russian crude and appears willing to sell it to anyone ready to buy it, given that its refinery is under European Union (EU) sanctions, according to Katona.Sukalp Sharma is a Deputy Associate Editor with The Indian Express and writes on a host of subjects and sectors, notably energy and aviation. He has over 16 years of experience in journalism with a body of work spanning areas like politics, development, equity markets, corporates, trade, and economic policy. He considers himself an above-average photographer, which goes well with his love for travel. ... Read More