India’s imports of Russian crude oil have dropped since the implementation of the price cap policy, with a significant 29 per cent month-on-month decline, but they are making a strong comeback in January this year. Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) reported that the deterioration occurred despite total imports growing marginally.
The sharp decline in imports was driven by Reliance’s Jamnagar refinery by around 49 per cent and a 15 per cent decline in imports from state-owned refineries in December. According to Kpler, an international real-time data and analytics provider, India imported more than 20.4 million barrels of Russian crude oil through 2025. December marked an import of 1.2 million barrels, compared with 1.8 million a month earlier. India has imported more than 1.1 million barrels of crude oil from Russia till January 13, 2026.
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India has now become the third-largest purchaser of Russian fossil fuels, displacing Turkiye to the second position in value terms, importing a total of EUR 2.3 billion of Russian hydrocarbons in December, CREA said in the report. While crude oil accounted for 78 per cent of India’s purchases, worth EUR 1.8 billion, coal (EUR 424 million) and oil products (EUR 82 million) accounted for the remainder of India’s monthly imports from Russia.
