In today's FirstScroll, we break down India's record purchases of Russian crude and explain why we're buying more than ever now that the famous discount has nearly vanished.
With that out of the way, let's dive into today's story.
The Story
On the Gujarat coastline sits Jamnagar, the largest refinery complex on the planet. Tankers arrive, unload crude, and leave carrying petrol, diesel and jet fuel for the world.
Five years ago, almost none of that crude was Russian. In 2021, Russia supplied barely 2.5% of India's crude, a rounding error next to the Gulf giants we'd bought from for decades.
Then came the war in Ukraine, Western buyers fled, and Moscow started offering its oil at a discount too deep to refuse. India's refiners took the deal, and everyone understood the arrangement: we buy because it's cheap.
Fast forward to July 2026, and the arrangement has quietly changed. Indian refiners imported a record 2.8 million barrels per day of Russian crude, the second monthly record in a row, giving Russia 55.5% of everything India imports.
Here's the strange part. The discount that started it all has almost disappeared. Urals crude that once sold $8 to $10 below Brent now goes for just $2 to $3 less, and the sanctions around the trade have only grown tighter.
So here's the question: why is India buying more Russian oil than ever at the exact moment the bargain stopped being a bargain?
You see, a refinery is not a kitchen where you swap one ingredient for another. Each plant is tuned to a specific crude diet, and after four years of running on Urals, Indian refineries are now configured for it. Switching back to Gulf grades costs money, time and margin.
Then there's reliability, which sounds boring until a strait closes. When tensions around the Strait of Hormuz threatened Gulf shipments this year, Russian barrels, which arrive by a different route, kept flowing without drama. In the oil trade, the supplier who never misses a delivery earns loyalty that outlasts any discount.
Each player's incentive lines up neatly. Russia needs large Asian buyers to keep export revenue alive, so it works hard to be India's easiest supplier. Indian refiners get dependable feedstock and healthy margins. And the West, for all its sanctions, quietly prefers Indian purchases to the alternative, because pulling 2.8 million barrels a day off the market would send global prices, and everyone's petrol bills, through the roof.
But here's the twist, and it's the part that makes diplomats squirm. India doesn't just buy Russian crude. It refines that crude and sells the products back to the very countries sanctioning Russia.
In July, refineries in India and three other countries that run on Russian crude exported €633 million of oil products to sanctioning nations, including €214 million to the European Union. This is despite an EU ban on products made from Russian crude that took effect in January 2026. The oil changes nationality inside the refinery, and the paperwork follows.
Now to be clear, the ground under this trade is thinning. The US quietly let a key waiver covering Russian oil shipments expire in June, and with the discount down to a few dollars, one tariff threat or one tightened rule could flip the math overnight. Gulf suppliers are already regaining share as regional shipping stabilises.
So, is this a habit India can't quit, or a habit it simply hasn't needed to quit yet? The honest answer is that what began as a bargain has hardened into infrastructure: refinery configurations, shipping relationships, payment channels. Bargains are easy to walk away from. Infrastructure is not.
We wrote earlier about how [India bought less oil but paid more](INTERNAL: india oil import bill story) for it, and this is the other half of that story. Whether India can keep refining Russian oil for the same countries that sanction Russia is something only time will tell.
Until then…
If this story helped you make sense of India's oil trade, share it with a friend on WhatsApp, LinkedIn, or X. You might also enjoy our story on why petrol cars hit a record low, because the ethanol in your tank exists to shrink this very import bill.
