This shipment highlights the extent of Russia’s fuel shortage: after the attacks, the country’s refining capacity shrank by approximately 40 percent. This forced one of the world’s largest oil states to seek help abroad, according to the “Financial Times” (FT).
According to data from analytics company Kpler, a tanker loaded with 42,000 tons of gasoline from India’s Vadinar refinery is expected to reach the “Beloje more” oil terminal in Northern Russia on Sunday.
Gasoline crisis affected about 50 million Russians
This month, gasoline sales restrictions per person were introduced in various Russian regions, as Kyiv’s strikes caused the biggest fuel crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In some areas, people had to wait in queues for hours or even days, and according to Financial Times estimates, this crisis affected about 50 million Russians.
Moscow officially announced its plan to import fuel at the end of June, when long queues began to form at gas stations across the country.
Kpler data shows that the fuel cargo from the Vadinar plant was first loaded onto the vessel “Agni” on June 18.
Data shows that on July 6, near the Damietta lighthouse on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, the tanker transferred the entire cargo to the vessel “Garnet”. On July 22, “Garnet” was sailing north along the Norwegian coast.
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Half of the Indian plant belongs to Rosneft
The Vadinar plant belongs to the Indian company “Nayara Energy”, in which Russia’s state-controlled “Rosneft” holds a 49 percent stake. According to Kpler data, more than 90 percent of the oil refined in Vadinar in 2026 was supplied from Russia. This creates a paradoxical situation: refined Russian oil returns to the country from a state that has become the main importer of Russian raw materials by sea since 2022, writes FT.
“Nayara” stated that it “has not sold and does not intend to sell fuel to Russian companies” and emphasized that it “remains committed to the Indian market and aims to meet fuel demand across the country”.
Reuters reported in early July that at least 60,000 tons of gasoline had been shipped from India to Russia – an amount equivalent to approximately 60 percent of the country’s daily consumption.
Gasoline is also imported from Belarus
The shipment from India arriving in Russia this week is the largest single imported batch of gasoline since the beginning of the fuel crisis, but it is not the only foreign fuel source Moscow is now using.
Belarus, which mainly refines Russian oil, has also significantly increased its gasoline sales to Russia. According to data from the Russian Price Research Center, shared with the Financial Times, Belarus sold 184,000 tons of gasoline to Russia in June: this is three times more than the previous month and even 184 times more than in the same period last year.
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