India Supplies Record Amounts of Petrol to Crisis-Hit Russia

India has emerged as a key petrol supplier to Russia after drone strikes on Russian refineries led to severe fuel shortages in Moscow. Indian refiners supplied up to 10 lakh barrels of gasoline during July and August to help stabilize Russian domestic fuel supplies.

The primary source of these shipments was the Vadinar refinery in Gujarat, operated by Nayara Energy, which is partly owned by Russia's state energy firm Rosneft. This marks a significant shift as India imports large volumes of crude oil from Russia, processes it into finished fuels like petrol, and has now exported a portion of that processed fuel back to Russia.

The drone strikes on Russian refineries severely reduced local fuel production, with analytics firm Vortexa recording 32 separate attacks between July and August. This resulted in a drop in domestic petrol output at affected facilities by up to 70%. To bridge the gap, Russia turned to sea-based imports from India, Turkey, and Morocco.