Mukesh Ambani Behind India’s Oil Imports from Russia

Darwin, August 25 — Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Group, is at the center of a geopolitical storm involving India’s increasing oil imports from Russia.

U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods, accusing the country of aiding Russia in the Ukraine war by importing oil. As a result, India is now among the most heavily tariffed nations by the U.S.

Although New Delhi and Moscow have been strategic partners since the Cold War — with Russia being a major supplier of defense equipment to India — Trump’s attention has been drawn to the recent surge in India’s oil imports from Russia.

On July 30, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform:

“India and China are the biggest buyers of Russian energy at a time when everyone wants Russia to stop the carnage in Ukraine — not good!”

On August 19, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Besent told CNBC that the biggest beneficiaries of these imports are “some wealthy families in India.”

The largest importer of Russian seaborne oil in India is Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), led by Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani.

In 2021, only 3% of crude oil imported by RIL’s Jamnagar refinery came from Russia. But after the Ukraine war began, this figure surged to an average of 50% in 2025, according to Finnish research group Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).

In the first seven months of 2025 alone, the Jamnagar refinery imported 18.3 million tonnes of crude oil from Russia — 64% more than the previous year — worth $8.7 billion.

CREA notes that this amount is only 12% less than the total oil imported from Russia in all of 2024.

Vaibhav Raghunandan, an EU-Russia analyst at CREA, told Al Jazeera that this shift stems from the price cap on Russian oil products implemented on February 5, 2023.

He explained,

“The aim of the cap was to reduce Russian revenues while keeping global supply stable. It was meant to make Russian oil attractive to countries like India and China, but limit Russia’s earnings.”

However, due to the price cap remaining fixed at $60 per barrel for three years and lax enforcement, the cap’s effectiveness has faded. Instead, Russia has relied on a massive shadow fleet of ships to transport oil, allowing sales above the capped price.

CREA reports that in January 2025, 83% of Russian crude oil was transported via this shadow fleet; by June, the number had fallen to 59%.

CREA tracked Russian oil imports and refined product exports from Jamnagar from 2021 to July 2025.

Their data shows that since February 2023, Jamnagar refinery has exported $85.9 billion worth of refined oil globally. Of this, around 42% ($36 billion) went to countries that have imposed sanctions on Russia.

Roughly one-third of the total exports — €17 billion ($19.7 billion) — went to the European Union, and $6.3 billion worth of products went to the United States, including an estimated $2.3 billion refined from Russian crude.

Since the price cap was introduced, the U.S. has become the fourth-largest buyer of refined products from Jamnagar by value — after the UAE, Australia, and Singapore — but by volume, the U.S. is the top importer, having brought in 8.4 million tonnes from February 2023 through July 2025.

In 2025 alone, the U.S. imported $1 billion worth of products from Jamnagar — 14% more than the previous year — making it the third-largest market globally. Of those imports, 64% were blending components, 14% petrol, and 13% fuel oil.

The second-largest importer of Russian crude in India is Nayara Energy, partly owned by Russian state-run oil and gas giant Rosneft. Its Vadinar refinery has imported an average of 66% of its crude from Russia in 2025.

“Utterly Hypocritical”

Experts argue that blaming a single company for India bearing the burden of higher tariffs is misleading.

Rachel Ziemba, senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said:

“While most of the profits have gone to Reliance, the Indian government has also found the trade beneficial. Cheap oil has helped reduce India’s current account deficit and signaled a non-aligned position.”

Historically, India has maintained strategic independence and did not align with either the U.S. or the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Ajay Srivastava, founder of the Global Trade Research Initiative, told Al Jazeera that Trump’s tariffs are “utterly hypocritical.”

He said:

“Ignoring China — the biggest importer of Russian oil — and targeting only India is farcical. Trump fears confronting China. And if Trump and Putin reach a deal over Ukraine tomorrow, the U.S. might impose tariffs on India for a completely different reason. These tariffs are driven by more than just trade logic.”

He noted that Reliance profited by buying cheap oil, which is now drawing attention because it is a private firm and questions often arise around wealthy entities.

Since the price cap took effect, 38% of the U.S.’s total blending component imports, 4% of jet fuel, and 2% of petrol have come from Jamnagar.

Analysts warn that changes are coming. The EU has decided to ban imports of refined products made from Russian crude oil starting January 2025.

CREA’s Raghunandan said:

“If this is enforced strictly, the impact will be significant.”

More than half of RIL’s jet fuel exports go to the EU. Losing that market could mean major revenue losses for some products, forcing the company to rethink its export strategy.

However, RIL signed a 10-year deal with Rosneft in December 2024, and it remains unclear how that contract will operate under the new sanctions regime.