India suspends crude Importation from Russia as U.S. Sanctions deepen

October 28, 2025

Following new U.S. sanctions in October 2025, Indian refiners are sharply cutting and pausing fresh imports from sanctioned Russian entities.

Today TV stated that the importation of crude oil from Russia by India will fall to almost zero by the end of 2025. This is due to sanctions on Russian energy giants Rosneft and Lukoil.

Reliance Industries, one of Rosneft’s biggest clients in India, has turned to the spot market for crude oil deliveries, while Indian Oil has launched a tender for oil cargos.

“We have not placed orders yet for fresh cargoes and have cancelled some that were booked from traders with links to the sanctioned entities,” one of the Reuters sources said.

“We need to ensure that our purchases are not linked to sanctioned entities as banks will not facilitate payments,” another told the publication.

The developments follow President Trump’s latest round of sanctions against Russian energy majors, targeting Rosneft and Lukoil, which together account for about 50% of Russia’s total oil exports, which, in turn, average some 4 million barrels daily.

Russian crude accounts for a third of India’s oil imports. The country turned from a minor supplier into the subcontinent’s top oil seller as the barrage of sanctions that the West leveled at Moscow prompted discounts that significantly reduced India’s import bill.

The country depends on imported oil to cover as much as 85% of its demand, which makes it extra-sensitive to price fluctuations.

With the latest sanctions, however, oil buyers are looking for alternatives, despite several statements from senior Indian officials, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, that energy security rather than geopolitics continues to be the guiding principle of foreign commodity buying.

Even before the latest sanctions came into effect, refiners had started diversifying their sources of crude, in anticipation of possible escalation from the Trump administration. Still, completely replacing Russian barrels with other supply will likely be challenging financially.

India Today TV/Oilprice.com