Russia starts importing gasoline from India after Ukrainian strikes on refineries cause fuel shortages
On July 6, the fuel was transferred to the Oman-flagged vessel Garnet at the Egyptian port of Damietta. The tanker arrived in Russia in early August.
This is not expected to be the only shipment. In late July, two more similar gasoline transshipment operations were recorded in Damietta.
Russia turned to Indian fuel after attacks on its oil refineries reduced production and caused a gasoline shortage on the domestic market.
Bloomberg notes that the appearance of Indian fuel on the Russian market points to:
Since Nayara came under European Union sanctions in July last year, the company has relied on so-called "shadow fleet" tankers and transshipment operations to receive crude oil and export fuel, Bloomberg writes.
The refinery in Vadinar can process about 400,000 barrels of oil per day. At the same time, the plant needs new external markets because one of its key buyers, Hindustan Petroleum Corp., has increased its own fuel production.
Background
As Rubryka reported earlier, as of June 16, Ukrainian long-range strikes had hit 16 major Russian refineries and terminals, knocking out more than 30% of Russia's oil refining capacity. After the attack on the Omsk refinery in early July, almost all of Russia's 10 largest refineries had come under attack.
It is worth noting that on June 29, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin admitted for the first time that Russian citizens and businesses were having difficulty buying gasoline. According to the Russian dictator, the authorities have taken several measures to overcome the fuel crisis, which has affected almost all regions of Russia.
Russia is now also negotiating imports of AI-92 gasoline from Kazakhstan. The talks involve possible supplies of about 50,000 tonnes of gasoline to stabilize the domestic market.
Also, on July 5, it became known that gasoline imports from Belarus to Russia reached a historic high in June, increasing almost 2.5 times compared with May.
It should be noted that on July 11 and overnight into July 12, Ukraine's Defense Forces struck the Syzran oil refinery in Russia's Samara region, as well as 10 Russian tankers and four ferries in the Sea of Azov.
In addition, overnight on July 12, a large-scale power outage occurred in parts of temporarily occupied Crimea and in the occupied territories of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. The occupation authorities blamed the outages on overloaded power grids and claimed the restrictions were temporary.
- Last
News by day
14 of August 2026
