Where Does India Get Its Oil?

Last updated: 20 October 2026 · Last verified: 20 October 2026

India is the world’s third-largest oil consumer and imports roughly 85-88% of the crude its refineries run, making it one of the most closely watched demand centres in global oil trade. Since late 2025, that supply picture has become a live sanctions test case: Washington sanctioned Russia’s two largest oil majors, Rosneft and Lukoil, and spent much of 2026 pressuring India to cut Russian purchases through tariff threats — even as Indian refiners kept buying, and volumes swung from a three-year low to a record high within the same year. This page tracks who is actually supplying India’s crude today, not who officials say should be.

India’s Crude Oil Supply Mix

India does not publish a real-time public breakdown of waterborne crude arrivals; the most current numbers available come from Kpler tanker-tracking data, reported by regional outlets tracking the monthly series. For September 2026 (the most recent month fully tracked, through 27 September), Russia remained India’s largest single supplier by a wide margin, followed by three Gulf producers.

Total Indian crude imports were running at roughly 5.25-5.3 million bpd in September 2026, a figure multiple outlets converge on. Imported crude supplies about 88.5% of India’s total crude consumption, according to provisional Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell (PPAC) data cited by Angel One in July 2026 — domestic production covers the rest. The ranking above is a single-month snapshot built from one tanker-tracking dataset; month-to-month shares for Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have moved enough in 2026 that this table should not be read as a fixed annual order.

Why Russia Still Dominates — Despite Sanctions

Russia’s share of Indian crude imports has swung sharply through 2026, driven less by sanctions compliance than by shipping economics and Middle East supply risk.

That volatility traces back to a specific sanctions action. On 22 October 2025, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Rosneft and Lukoil, Russia’s two largest oil companies, under Executive Order 14024. Wind-down general licenses for existing contracts expired on 21 November 2025 (one narrower license ran to 13 December). Kpler data showed Russian flows to India drop from about 1.95 million bpd to roughly 1.19 million bpd within the week to 27 October 2025. Refiners reacted individually rather than as a bloc: Reliance Industries halted new Russian purchases in late October 2025, according to Outlook Business, though it was still taking delivery of previously contracted cargoes — about 293,000 bpd via its Sikka terminal in December, down from 552,000 bpd in November. State refiner Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) became the single largest buyer of Russian crude by December, at roughly 500,000 bpd, while Nayara Energy — the Rosneft-linked operator of the 400,000-bpd Vadinar refinery — stayed almost entirely dependent on Russian supply, taking about 471,000 bpd, roughly 40% of all Russian barrels reaching India that month. By December 2025, total Russian imports had fallen to about 1.2 million bpd, a three-year low and roughly 40% below the June 2025 peak, per Kpler data reported by Outlook Business.

The 2026 rebound back to a record 2.8 million bpd in July reflects two forces pulling in the same direction: Urals crude discounts widened again as Western buyers stayed away, making Russian barrels cheaper relative to Gulf grades, and the Strait of Hormuz disruption (tracked on The Daily Energy’s Strait of Hormuz chokepoint page) made non-Hormuz-dependent Russian supply more attractive to refiners managing shipping risk. Indian officials have repeatedly said the country will continue buying Russian oil on commercial terms, rejecting the idea that it had agreed to a formal halt.

Other Major Suppliers: Iraq, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, United States

Iraq and Saudi Arabia have long been India’s second and third suppliers behind Russia, though their exact ranking shifts month to month and some 2026 reports on year-over-year share changes conflict with each other — this page uses the single-dataset snapshot above rather than mixing figures from different trackers. Separately, India’s state explorer ONGC signed a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Aramco to explore long-term supply contracts — an early-stage MoU, not a signed offtake agreement — while Indian state refiners have in parallel sought to trim FY26 Saudi term-contract volumes from a roughly 592,000-bpd FY25 baseline amid high Saudi official selling prices. The UAE’s gains through 2026 are partly operational rather than contractual: ADNOC has rerouted some crude loadings from Hormuz-exposed terminals to Fujairah and Sohar on the UAE’s east coast to reduce exposure to the strait, a logistics shift rather than a new sales deal.

US crude has been the most volatile marginal supplier. Imports spiked to around 540,000 bpd by late October 2025 — the highest since 2022 — on a wide Brent-WTI spread that made US grades unusually cheap for Indian refiners, per Kpler data reported by Outlook Business, before falling back to roughly 300,000 bpd by June 2026 and dropping out of the September 2026 top five entirely.

The US Tariff Deal and the Russia Question

In February 2026, the US and India reached an interim trade framework in which Washington cut tariffs on Indian goods from 50% to 18%, removing a 25-percentage-point “Russia-oil penalty” component, in exchange for India agreeing to steps including roughly $500 billion in US energy and other purchases over five years. Indian officials confirmed the tariff reduction but did not publicly confirm any formal commitment to halt Russian oil purchases — leaving that part of the deal ambiguous. Broader talks reportedly slowed later in 2026 after a US Supreme Court ruling constrained the tariff authority Washington had been using as leverage, though India’s commerce ministry said most outstanding issues were close to resolved. Most recently, Trump signed an executive order on 19 October 2026 suspending new Russia-related sanctions and tariffs on buyers of Russian oil, which coincided with crude prices pulling back from a five-month high — a step that, if sustained, would reduce near-term pressure on Indian refiners to keep diversifying away from Russian barrels.

What to Watch Next

Three things will determine whether Russia’s share of Indian imports keeps swinging as sharply in 2027: whether the October 2026 sanctions suspension holds or new measures are reimposed; whether India and the US convert the February 2026 tariff framework into a fuller agreement that explicitly addresses Russian oil volumes; and how much of IOC’s Panipat refinery expansion — to 25 million tonnes/year of capacity, about 94% complete as of the company’s Q1 FY27 filing and targeted for full commissioning in December 2026 — shifts India’s crude slate toward grades better suited to new unit configurations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does India still buy Russian oil in 2026?
Yes. Russian crude supplied between roughly 1.7 million and a record 2.8 million barrels per day to India at different points in 2026, fluctuating with sanctions pressure, shipping discounts and Middle East supply risk, according to Kpler tanker-tracking data.

How much oil does India import from Russia right now?
In September 2026, Russia supplied roughly 1.74-1.82 million barrels per day, about 33% of India’s total crude imports — down sharply from a record 2.8 million bpd (about 55.5% of imports) in July 2026.

Where does India get most of its oil from?
Russia is currently India’s largest single supplier, followed by Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait, based on September 2026 tanker-tracking data. Imported crude covers about 88.5% of India’s total consumption; the rest is domestic production.

Why does India keep buying Russian oil despite US sanctions?
Indian refiners say the purchases are commercial decisions driven by price discounts on Russian Urals crude relative to Gulf grades, not a response to US or EU policy. The October 2025 OFAC sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil caused a temporary drop in volumes, but Indian officials have said the country has not agreed to a formal halt.

Will US tariffs on India change based on its Russian oil purchases?
It’s unresolved. A February 2026 framework cut US tariffs on Indian goods from 50% to 18% partly in exchange for Indian commitments on energy purchases, but India never publicly confirmed a formal Russian-oil cutoff, and Trump’s 19 October 2026 order suspending new Russia-linked sanctions reduces near-term pressure either way.

How much crude oil does India import in total?
About 5.25-5.3 million barrels per day as of September 2026, according to tanker-tracking data reported across multiple outlets, with imports covering roughly 88.5% of total Indian crude consumption per provisional PPAC figures.

Related The Daily Energy Pages

• Where Does Japan Get Its LNG? (Who Powers Who? series)
• Who Supplies Türkiye With Natural Gas? (Who Powers Who? series)
• What Happens When the Strait of Hormuz Closes?
• ADNOC: Ownership, Leadership and Major Assets
• Saudi Aramco: Ownership, Leadership and Major Projects
• Trump Suspends New Russia Oil Sanctions as Crude Slides From Five-Month High
• Ship-to-Ship Oil Transfers Surge Off India’s Gulf of Kutch as Hormuz Shuttle Routes Fill Up
• Ukraine Drone Strike Hits Russia’s Ryazan Refinery as Ceasefire Unravels

Sources

• Kpler tanker-tracking data, via Oil Monster / Shafaq News, “Russia dominates India’s crude oil imports in September amid US tariff threats” (September 2026, data through 27 Sept)
• TASS, citing Times of India, September 2026 India crude import figures
• Business Today, “Russian oil imports to India at 3-month high” (19 March 2026) and “India’s imports of Russian crude fell in August, could fall further in September” (23 September 2026)
• Swarajya, “India’s Russian oil imports fall 16.5% in August as supplies from West Asia rise” (23 September 2026)
• Free Press Journal, “India’s Russian crude imports fall 32% in August as rising oil prices pressure refiners”
• Angel One, “India’s crude import bill climbs 41% to $13.7 billion in July 2026” (July 2026), citing Kpler/CREA and PPAC
• Outlook Business, “India’s Russian Oil Imports Continue as Indian Oil, Nayara Step Up Purchases” and “Indian Imports of Russian Oil Decline in December; Reliance May Limit the Fall”; “India’s Crude Import from US Surges to Highest Since 2022”
• US Department of the Treasury, OFAC sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil under EO 14024, 22 October 2025 (via Mofo, Seward & Kissel, Steptoe and McDermott Will & Emery sanctions trackers)
• Reuters / Kpler / LSEG, India-Russia crude flow data, May-June 2026, via regional financial press
• Arab News, New Straits Times, Gulf News, GMA Network — February 2026 US-India tariff framework reporting
• Energy Intelligence, “Energy Trade Boom No Slam Dunk Under US-India Deal”; “India Steps Up US Crude Buying on Eve of Tariff Deadline”; “India’s Refiners Defy Demand To Grow Capacity”; “Indian Refiners Eye Cuts to Saudi Term Volumes”
• Indian Oil Corporation, Q1 FY27 investor filing (quarter to 30 June 2026), Panipat refinery expansion status
• TDE report, 19 October 2026, “Trump Suspends New Russia Oil Sanctions as Crude Slides From Five-Month High”

Illustrative image. Photo: U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 1st Class David C. Lloyd, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — source