Business

India Russia Oil Timeline 2021-2026: Imports & Margins

Russia went from supplying under 2% of India's crude oil in FY2021-22 to 35.8% in FY2024-25, becoming India's largest single crude supplier. The reason evolved…

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PRE-WAR BASELINE

Russia Was a Rounding Error in India's Oil Basket

Through January 2022, Russia supplied less than 0.2% of India's crude imports. Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait together supplied roughly 85%, arriving in days acr…

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THE DISCOUNT ERA

Sanctions Force Steep Discounts, India Starts Buying

After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Western buyers and traders retreated from Russian oil. Moscow discounted Urals crude by roughly $20-35 a barrel to Brent to attract n…

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SANCTIONS FRAMEWORK

G7/EU Price Cap Begins — Not a Purchase Ban

The G7 and EU introduced a $60/barrel price cap on Russian oil. The mechanism conditioned access to Western shipping, insurance and financing services on a cargo being s…

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STRUCTURAL SHIFT

Russia Holds ~36% Share for Two Straight Fiscal Years

Russia's share of India's crude imports climbed to 21.6% in FY2022-23, then held at 35.9% in FY2023-24 and 35.8% in FY2024-25 (PPAC/DGCI&S) — confirming the shift was st…

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SANCTIONS TIGHTEN

EU Sanctions Nayara Energy; Price Cap Cut

The EU's 18th sanctions package directly sanctioned Nayara Energy (49.13% owned by Rosneft) and cut the price cap to $47.60/barrel with a new dynamic formula. Nayara's E…

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TWO-YEAR LOW

Russian Imports Collapse to ~1.1 mb/d

India's Russian crude imports fell to roughly 1.1 million barrels a day — the lowest since late 2022 — days after a new EU ban on fuel refined from Russian crude in thir…

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THE HORMUZ CRISIS

Strait of Hormuz Closes; Russian Oil Trades at a Premium

Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz on February 28, 2026, after US and Israeli strikes reportedly killed Iran's Supreme Leader. Gulf tanker traffic fell roughly 95%. With G…

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ALL-TIME HIGH

Russian Imports Hit a Record 2.82 mb/d

India's Russian crude imports hit an all-time monthly high of roughly 2.82 million barrels a day — 55.5% of everything India imported that month — as refiners kept subst…

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CHINA OUTBIDS INDIA

Imports Fall 26%+ as China Competes for the Same Barrels

Chinese 'teapot' refiners bid more aggressively for Russian cargoes, pulling India's volumes down more than 26% from July's record to roughly 2.0 million barrels a day,…

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