India’s Reliance To Stop Processing Russian Oil At Giant Jamnagar Refinery

India’s Reliance Industries said it would stop processing Russian oil at part of its giant Jamnagar oil refinery as US sanctions force the company to shy away from dealings with Moscow, Bloomberg reported.  

The export-focused part of the refinery took its last shipment of Russian crude on Thursday, the company said in statement adding that some purchases bought before the US put sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies would discharge at another part of the facility.

Starting Friday, four of Russia’s top producers – accounting for as much as 80% of the country’s exports to India – are under sanction, leaving counterparties at risk of secondary sanctions. 

Reliance’s plant at Jamnagar can process more than 1.4 million barrels a day of crude and in turn supply products to both the domestic market and overseas. 

In a sign that Trump’s sanctions on Russian oil may finally be working by alienting its largest clients, a Bloomberg source said that Reliance isn’t currently buying Russian oil and hasn’t taken a view yet on whether it will resume doing so.

Last month, the Trump admin announced sanctions on Russian oil giants, Lukoil and Rosneft, meaning a swath of Russia’s flows are pumped by blacklisted firms. This week Intercontinental Exchange Inc. said that it would not allow diesel from refineries served by ports that receive Russian crude to be used in the settlement process for January ICE gasoil futures contracts.

As Bloomberg notes, a deadline to wind down deals with the two firms is set to pass on Friday, putting pressure on the companies and countries that had continued to buy barrels from Moscow. And while Indian refiners have been booking ships for alternative cargoes over recent weeks, sending tanker rates soaring, the impact on oil prices of the sanctions has been relatively muted, suggesting there’s little panic in the market.

Separately, Bloomberg reports that at least 7.7 million barrels of Russia’s flagship Urals crude loaded on 11 tankers (full list below), linked to the two sanctioned producers are set to reach India’s shores after the US restrictions take effect today, according to data from Kpler. That raises questions on whether the crude will be able to discharge smoothly, given the deadline.

Most of the tankers are heading either to the Jamnagar refinery or to Rosneft-linked Nayara Energy’s Vadinar port. Delivery dates range from the end of November and into December.  Should the ships fail to arrive by Nov. 21, they could idle off India’s shores while they consider their next moves, which can include ship-to-ship transfers to other tankers and diversions to new destinations such as the waters off Malaysia or even further to China.

It remains unclear if other Indian companies have sought any exemptions from the US to continue buying some crude parcels from Rosneft or Lukoil after the Friday deadline. Earlier in November, Hungary won an exemption on procurement of Russian oil and gas and the US has also extended a waiver for some Lukoil transactions.