Reliance exported Rs 6,848 crore worth of fuel made from Russian oil to US: Report

New Delhi: Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd is estimated to have earned Rs 6,848 crore (€724 million) from exporting fuel made from Russian crude oil to the US in one year, an European think tank said in a report.

"From January 2024 to the end of January 2025, the US imported Rs 26,489 crore (€2.8 billion) of refined oil from six refineries in India and Turkey that process Russian crude. An estimated Rs 12,298 crore (€1.3 billion) of this was refined from Russian crude," the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) said in a report.

US imports of fuels such as petrol and diesel from Jamnagar in Gujarat, where Reliance's twin oil refineries are located, were Rs 18,919 crore (€2 billion). Of this, "Rs 6,848 crore (€724 million) (is) estimated to be refined from Russian crude," it said.

Western and US sanctions on Russia, that followed its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, do not prohibit or sanction buying/using Russian crude oil and exporting fuels such as diesel derived from it.

Gujarat's Vadinar, where Russia's Rosneft-based Nayara Energy has a 20 million tonne a year refinery, exported Rs 1,740 crore (€184 million) worth of fuel to the US between January 2024 and January 2025. Of this, Rs 1,173 crore (€124 million) is estimated to be refined from Russian crude, CREA said.

New Mangalore, where Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) has a unit, exported Rs 397 crore (€42 million) worth of fuel to the US, of which Rs 208 crore (€22 million) is estimated to be refined from Russian crude, it said.

An e-mail sent to Reliance for comments remained unanswered.

Turkey's three refineries exported a total of Rs 5,828 crore (€616 million) worth of fuel to the US, of which Rs 5,155 crore (€545 million) is estimated to have come from refining Russian crude.

"Russia has earned an estimated Rs 6,489 crore ($750 million) in tax from these imports (from India and Turkey) to the US," CREA said. "The imports consist of gasoline (petrol) valued at Rs 2,781 crore (€294 million), which ends up in American cars. By our rough estimate, US imports of gasoline made from Russian crude could fill up almost every car in Florida."

As one third of the Russian federal budget is comprised of revenue from fossil fuel exports, sanctions are the key to ending the invasion, while simultaneously also gaining the upper hand in negotiations towards an equitable and acceptable peace for Ukraine, it added.

While there are no restriction or sanctions on buying/using Russian crude oil and exporting fuels such as diesel derived from it, the Group of Seven (G7) rich nations, the European Union and Australia - called the price cap coalition countries - first set a crude price cap of $60 per barrel starting December 5, 2022 and later on products like diesel to keep market supplied while limiting Moscow's revenue.

This was aimed at punishing Russia for its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine by depriving it of oil revenues while averting a surge in prices that could occur if Russian oil stopped flowing to global markets.

But both Europe and the US imported fuel produced from refining Russian crude oil in third world countries such as India.