India’s Reliance Stops Using Russian Oil in Part of Jamnagar
(Bloomberg) -- India’s Reliance Industries Ltd. 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.
The export-focused part of the refinery, which accounts for about half of its 1.4 million barrels a day of capacity, took its last shipment of Russian crude on Thursday, the company said in statement.
The move would mean the site could keep supplying fuel to Europe when new sanctions banning the import of petroleum made from Russian crude come into effect early next year. It will also demonstrate compliance with a US effort to force processors away from Russian barrels.
Reliance isn’t currently buying Russian oil and hasn’t taken a view yet on whether it will resume doing so, a person with knowledge of the matter said, asking not to be identified because the information isn’t public. Together, the two sites at Jamnagar make it the world’s biggest oil refinery.
Still, the company said in a statement that some purchases bought before the US put sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies would discharge at another part of the Jamnagar facility that supplies the domestic market, it added.
The US announcement of sanctions on Lukoil PJSC and Rosneft PJSC last month sent shockwaves through Asian oil buyers, as it meant a swath of Russia’s flows are pumped by blacklisted firms. Processors in India and China had snapped up cheap Russian barrels in the aftermath of the war in Ukraine, denting the impact of rampant global inflation in 2022.
A deadline to wind down deals with the duo is set to pass on Friday, putting pressure on the companies and countries that had continued to buy barrels from Moscow after Russia invaded Ukraine. While Indian refiners have been booking ships for alternative cargoes over recent weeks, the impact on oil prices of the sanctions has been relatively muted, suggesting there’s little panic in the market.
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.
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