Reliance Industries on Tuesday said that it has not received any delivery of Russian oil at its Jamnagar refinery in the past three weeks and is not expecting such consignments in January.
The Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate made the statement to deny a report by Bloomberg on Friday, which cited data from analytics firm Kpler to say that three ships carrying Russian oil were heading to the refinery in Gujarat.
The report is “blatantly untrue”, Reliance said.
On November 20, Reliance Industries said that it had stopped importing Russian oil into its Jamnagar refinery and that it will abide by western sanctions against Russia amid Moscow’s war on Ukraine, while maintaining ties with existing oil suppliers.
The Jamnagar facility is considered the world’s largest single-location refining complex.
The United States and its European allies have imposed a series of sanctions on Russian businesses, especially oil exporters, since February 2022, when the war in Ukraine began. The sanctions are aimed at forcing Moscow to end the conflict and sign a peace deal with Kyiv.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly alleged that the import of discounted Russian oil by countries, including India, was fuelling Moscow’s war.
In August, the Trump administration doubled the tariffs on goods imported from India to 50% for purchasing Russian oil. A 25% so-called reciprocal tariff had already taken effect.
New Delhi had said at the time that it was “extremely unfortunate” that the US had chosen to impose the punitive levies on India “for actions that several other countries are also taking in their own national interest”.
On October 23, Reliance Industries had told Reuters that “recalibration of Russian oil imports is ongoing” and that the company “will be fully aligned to GOI [Government of India] guidelines”.
On November 20, the Indian conglomerate’s spokesperson was quoted as saying by Reuters that from December 1, all products exported from the Jamnagar facility will have been produced from crude oil not sourced from Russia.
On Sunday, US Senator Lindsey Graham quoted the Indian ambassador as having told him in a private conversation that India was buying less Russian oil, and urged him to request Trump to relax tariffs linked to such imports.
Graham quoted the conversation, in presence of the US president, to claim that the punitive measures being imposed by Trump worked.
Reacting to Graham’s comments, Trump told reporters that the US could raise tariffs on India if New Delhi does not cut Russian oil imports.
The Congress on Monday criticised the Union government saying that India deserved an independent foreign policy and “not silent submission”.
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