Reliance Industries to evaluate impact of EU sanctions on Russian oil trade

Time of India

2 days ago

Reliance Industries Ltd
(RIL) said on Friday it will evaluate the latest round of sanctions imposed by European Union member states targeting Russia's
oil and energy revenues
, including restrictions that extend to
petroleum products
refined from Russian crude in third countries -affecting Indian exports.
India's crude imports from Russia were valued at $50.3 billion in FY25, accounting for more than a third of the country's total
crude bill
of $143.1 billion. Indian refiners, including RIL, process this crude and
export petroleum products
globally, including to the EU.
"There will be a wind-down period, we hope, and we'll need to assess the scope of the sanctions-especially how they define products," said
Srinivas Tuttagunta
, Chief Operating Officer (Supply and Trading), RIL. "In previous instances, definitions allowed for products that were 'substantially transformed'."
India exported petroleum products worth $5 billion to the EU last year.
Tuttagunta said RIL would review the final text of the sanctions before taking a formal position. "We are quite diversified," he said. "Light distillates primarily go to the US and other destinations, while middle distillates head to Europe. But we also have markets in Africa, Singapore, the Middle East and others."
He added that should Europe lose access to certain distillates, margins could rise sharply. "That has been the trend historically, as we saw in 2022 during the initial Russian sanctions."
"We'll wait to see the full details. But overall, margins could be constructive again, depending on how the situation evolves," he said.