India slips to No. 3 in Russian fossil fuel imports in Dec: China, Turkiye top buyers

India slipped to the third position among buyers of Russian fossil fuels in December 2025 after Reliance Industries and state-owned refiners sharply reduced crude oil imports , according to a European energy think tank.

The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) said India’s total Russian hydrocarbon imports fell to €2.3 billion in December , from €3.3 billion in November . Turkiye displaced India as the second-largest importer , buying €2.6 billion worth of Russian hydrocarbons during the month. China remained the biggest buyer , accounting for 48% (€6 billion) of Russia’s export revenues among the top five importers.

Among the leading importers in December, the report listed China , followed by Turkiye , India , the European Union and Saudi Arabia . The EU imported €1.3 billion worth of Russian fossil fuels, about half of it LNG while Saudi Arabia purchased €328 million of Russian oil products.

CREA said crude oil dominated India’s purchases , accounting for 78% (€1.8 billion) of the total. Coal (€424 million) and oil products (€82 million) made up the remainder.

India’s Russian crude imports registered a 29% month-on-month decline , falling to the lowest levels since the implementation of the price cap policy , CREA noted, without providing absolute volumes. The drop was driven mainly by Reliance’s Jamnagar refinery , which halved its Russian crude intake in December. The think tank said Reliance’s supplies came entirely from Rosneft , sourced from cargoes purchased before US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions came into effect .

State-run refiners also reduced imports from Russia by around 15% in December.

The report said the latest cuts follow US sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil , aimed at curbing Moscow’s revenues for the Ukraine war. The restrictions led companies including Reliance Industries, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd (HMEL) and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) to halt or reduce purchases for now. However, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) continues to buy Russian crude from non-sanctioned Russian suppliers , CREA said.

Russia’s share in India’s crude basket fell to around 25% in December , down from 35% in November , according to the report.

CREA also noted that five refineries in India, Turkiye and Brunei processing Russian crude exported €943 million worth of oil products to sanctioning countries in December. The importers included the EU (€436 million), the US (€189 million), the UK (€34 million) and Australia (€283 million) . The think tank estimated €274 million worth of these exports were refined from Russian crude.

Exports to sanctioning countries fell 9% month-on-month , driven by reduced purchases by the EU (down 26%) and the UK (down 53%) , though shipments to Australia rose 9% , led by exports from Jamnagar and Brunei’s Hengyi refinery .