Reliance Industries Denies Media Report on Russian Oil Shipments to Jamnagar Refinery

Reliance Industries has termed a Bloomberg news report claiming that three vessels laden with Russian oil are heading for its Jamnagar refinery as “blatantly untrue”. In a statement released on X (formerly Twitter), the company stated that its Jamnagar refinery has not received any cargo of Russian oil in the past three weeks approximately and is not expecting any Russian crude oil deliveries in January.

“We are deeply pained that those claiming to be at the forefront of fair journalism chose to ignore the denial by RIL of buying any Russian oil to be delivered in January and published a wrong report tarnishing our image,” the company said in the statement.
The Bloomberg report, titled “Ships with Russian oil signal Reliance Plant as Destination”, claimed that shipping data indicated the movement of Russian crude towards the west coast of India.

According to Bloomberg, a Reliance spokesperson had denied that the company purchased the cargoes, adding that it did not have any committed shipments of Russian crude for delivery in January.

However, Bloomberg reported that at least three tankers carrying Russian crude were indicating the RIL plant on the west coast as their next destination, suggesting the refiner had restarted some purchases for domestic production. Citing data from analytics firm Kpler, the report stated: “The vessels, laden with nearly 2.2 million barrels of Urals, are currently signalling the huge Jamnagar complex and are expected to deliver their cargoes early this month.”

Explaining the methodology, Bloomberg noted that Kpler tracks vessel movements based on live signals sent by captains detailing current locations and upcoming discharge ports, adding that “destinations can change as the ships approach India”.

The denial by RIL comes amid the fresh US threats of imposing more tariffs on the import of Indian goods as a “penalty” for India purchasing Russian oil. US President Donald Trump has warned of higher tariffs if India continued these imports. 

“PM Modi’s a very good man. He’s a good guy. He knew I was not happy. It was important to make me happy. They do trade, and we can raise tariffs on them very quickly,” Trump said on Sunday.

Shares of RIL slipped sharply today, falling 5% on sustained selling pressure post the Bloomberg report.