India and Russia have started an inverted oil trade, after Moscow, the largest exporter of crude oil to India became an important importer of oil products from the country. Fuel was also imported from South Korea after Russia started facing severe domestic fuel shortages due to the war.
According to a 2026 report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) by Luke Wickenden and Isaac Levi and data scientist Panda Rushwood, this August, Russia imported a record high, 70 percent of petroleum products from India.
“Ukrainian refinery strikes see Russia’s oil product exports hit record lows and Moscow turns to importing fuels from South Korea and India,” the report reads.
Russia generally purchases only small volumes of refined oil products, averaging less than 5,000 tons per month of seaborne imports between 2023 and 2025.
According to the experts, Ukrainian drone attacks damaged the Sheskharis terminal, cutting loadings at Novorossiysk by 58 percent month-on-month. Loadings at the Novorossiysk port, the largest port in Russia by cargo turnover and volume
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ceased for nine consecutive days. It was the longest disruption since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“Gasoline accounted for 74 percent of Russia’s total oil product imports in August, compared with just 6 percent between 2023 and 2025. This made Russia a net importer of gasoline in August 2026,” the CREA report said.
The rising oil product imports by Moscow meant decreasing exports — after two successive months of all-time high crude oil imports from Russia, India’s imports decreased by 24 percent in August month-on-month.
Imports by all three of India’s largest Russian crude-importing refineries remained high in August: the Jamnagar refinery (fell 15 percent month-on-month), Vadinar refinery (rose 5 percent), and Paradip refinery (increased a minor 1 percent).
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