Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) on Tuesday refuted reports that three vessels laden with Russian oil are on their way to its Jamnagar refinery.
In a post on social media platform X, Reliance Industries called the report “blatantly untrue”, adding that the refinery has not received any Russian oil cargo in around the past three weeks, nor is it expecting any Russian crude oil deliveries in January.
“We are deeply pained that those claiming to be at the forefront of fair journalism chose to ignore the denial by RIL of buying any Russian oil to be delivered in January and published a wrong report tarnishing our image,” it added.
What was claimed about Russian oil deliveries?
On 2 January, Bloomberg reported that at least three tankers filled with 2.2 million barrels of Urals (Russian crude oil) sailed towards Reliance's Jamnagar refinery and expected to arrive in January.
It cited data from analytics firm Kpler, which tracks the movement of vessels based on live signals sent by captains detailing their current location and upcoming discharge ports. The report added that the ships could change their destinations as they approached the Indian coast.
The report added that the tracking site showed the cargoes as being supplied by traders Alghaf Marine DMCC, Redwood Global Supply FZ LLC, RusExport and Ethos Energy. Notably, the UK sanctioned Alghaf Marine and Redwood Global, and the former is the successor company to the Middle Eastern branch of Litasco, the trading arm of Lukoil, which the United States sanctioned.
What has Reliance said about Russian oil purchases?
At the time of the report, a Reliance spokesman told Bloomberg the refinery is not expecting Russian crude deliveries this month.
In November 2025, RIL said that it would stop using Russian crude at the export-focused part of its refinery, as per the report. From January-November last year, Russian oil comprised 40% of Jamnagar refinery complex’s imports, it added.
(With inputs from Bloomberg)
