Desk Report,
Asia’s richest man behind India’s energy imports from Russia
US President Donald Trump has imposed an additional 25 percent tariff on India as a ‘penalty’ for importing energy from Russia. He claims that India is helping Russia continue the war in Ukraine. This has now made India one of the countries that impose the highest tariffs on the US.
Asia’s richest man behind India’s energy imports from Russia
India and Russia have a long-standing relationship. The two countries have been strategically close since the Cold War. Russia is one of India’s main arms suppliers. However, Trump has been angry with India over the recent massive increase in oil imports from Russia.
On July 30, Trump wrote on his social media account Truth Social, ‘While everyone wants Russia to stop killing in Ukraine, India and China are the biggest buyers of Russian oil. This is not a good thing at all.’
On August 19, US Treasury Secretary Scott Besant told CNBC, ‘India’s richest families are the big beneficiaries of this Russian oil import.’
Reliance Industries is the largest importer of Russian crude oil in India. The company is owned by Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani.
According to the Amsterdam-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), only 3 per cent of the total crude oil imported into Reliance’s Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat came from Russia in 2021. However, this has increased to an average of 50 per cent in 2025 after the start of the Ukraine war.
In the first seven months of 2025, the Jamnagar refinery imported 18.3 million tonnes of crude oil from Russia. This is 64 per cent more than last year. Its market value is $8.7 billion. Reliance’s imports from Russia in these seven months are only 12 per cent less than its total imports in 2024. Vaibhav Raghunandan, a European Union-Russia analyst at CREA, told Al Jazeera that the change is due to the Russian oil price cap that came into effect on February 5, 2023.
Raghunandan said, “The main purpose of setting the price cap was to reduce Russia’s income. At the same time, to ensure the supply of oil in the world. A low price cap makes oil more attractive to countries like India and China. But it limits Russia’s income.”
Reliance did not receive a response to a few questions from Al Jazeera on these issues.
However, the price cap has been stuck at $60 for three years and has not been properly implemented. As a result, its impact has diminished. On the contrary, Russia has created a ‘shadow transport fleet’ of hundreds of ships, so that it can avoid the rules while exporting oil and get a higher price than the publicly stated price. According to CREA, 83 percent of Russia’s oil was shipped through this shadow transport fleet until January. This transport fell to 59 percent in June. In the first seven months of 2025, 18.3 million tonnes of imported crude oil arrived at the Jamnagar refinery from Russia. This amount is 64 percent more than last year. Its market value is $8.7 billion. Reliance’s imports from Russia in these seven months are only 12 percent less than its total imports in 2024.
An analysis of Reliance’s import and export data shows that from February 2023 to July 2025, the Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat exported refined oil worth $85.9 billion worldwide. Of this, about 42 percent (36 billion) was exported to countries that have imposed sanctions on Russia.
One-third of the total exports went to the European Union (€17 billion or $19.07 billion). The United States received $6.3 billion in oil products. At least $2.3 billion of this came from Russian crude.
The United States is Jamnagar’s fourth largest buyer in terms of price, after the United Arab Emirates, Australia, and Singapore. However, the United States is the largest importer in terms of volume. The United States has imported 8.4 million tons of petroleum products since the 2023 price cap took effect through July 2025.
In 2025, the United States imported $1.4 billion worth of fuel products from Jamnagar. This is 14 percent more than last year. U.S. imports include blending components (64 percent), gasoline (14 percent), and fuel oil (13 percent).
