Russia imported a record 172,000 tonnes of oil products in August, including gasoline refined from Russian crude at a refinery in India that is partly owned by Russia's Rosneft, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA). India supplied 70 per cent of Russia's oil product imports in August, including 120,000 tonnes of gasoline worth 78 million euros, as reported by CREA in its monthly analysis of Russian fossil fuel exports and sanctions. The volume of Russian fuel imports was more than seven times the previous monthly record and three times the total imported during all of 2025. Russia is therefore paying a refinery that it partly owns to process its own crude into fuel it can no longer produce domestically, before shipping it back halfway around the world.
All of the gasoline from India was loaded at the Vadinar refinery and sold by EU-sanctioned Nayara Energy to Rosneft, CREA said. Rosneft owns 49.13 per cent of Nayara Energy, while Vadinar sourced all of its crude from Russia during the first eight months of 2026, compared with 81 per cent for all of 2025. Each cargo of gasoline exported from Vadinar to Russia was transferred between vessels in a ship-to-ship operation at the Damietta Lightering Zone off Egypt before being unloaded at Russia's Arctic port of Beloe More, with all vessels involved being sanctioned tankers. Four of the six vessels had previously operated under false flags, according to CREA.
The shipments underscore the impact of a sustained Ukrainian drone campaign against Russia's oil refineries and energy infrastructure, which has reduced domestic fuel production and contributed to shortages, according to CREA. Russia's gasoline imports surged even as the country faced declining exports, with gasoline accounting for 74 per cent of its total oil-product imports in August, compared with just 6 per cent on average between 2023 and 2025. Ukrainian strikes also disrupted crude exports through Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, with crude loadings falling 58 per cent month-on-month in August and stopping for nine consecutive days - the longest reported interruption at the port since the start of the full-scale invasion. The attacks have caused fuel shortages in Russia, one of the world's biggest energy producers, forcing Moscow to import fuel from South Korea and India.
Drone attacks have disrupted major Russian diesel refineries, cutting output and forcing Moscow to restrict exports of diesel, gasoline and jet fuel. According to Reuters calculations based on data from fuel market participants, half of Russia's six top diesel-producing refineries were forced to significantly cut back or completely halt output in September due to damage sustained in drone attacks. The six plants — the Omsk refinery, Kirishi, Taneco, Volgograd refinery, NORSI and Perm — account for about half of Russia's diesel production. Kirishi has been fully shut down, while the Volgograd refinery and NORSI are operating at about one-quarter of their nameplate capacity. Russian diesel exports before the restrictions were introduced amounted to less than 1 million metric tons in June, compared with about 2.5 million tons per month a year earlier when refineries were operating normally.
Russia's seaborne oil-product exports fell 21 per cent by volume in August, while revenues from products unloaded at destination ports dropped 32 per cent from July to 78 million euros per day - the lowest level since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Oil-product loadings at Russian ports have fallen for three consecutive months and were less than half their August 2025 level, CREA said. Tuapse, Russia's fourth-largest oil-product export port, did not load a single oil-product cargo for the third consecutive month after sustained Ukrainian drone attacks since May. Overall, Russia's fossil-fuel export revenues fell 8 per cent in August to 604 million euros per day, while export volumes declined 7 per cent. The conflict in Iran has undermined global fuel supply, while Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia's refineries have led to a decline in fuel production and forced Moscow to restrict exports.
