Reliance Industries Ltd. shares will be in focus on Friday after the US tightened its sanctions regime against Russian energy exports to force Moscow into a ceasefire in Ukraine.
The Trump administration sanctioned Rosneft and Lukoil, which have a combined export of up to 3.1 million barrels per day out of Russia’s total 3.8-3.9 mbpd shipments.
India is Russia’s second-largest oil customer, just behind China. Since the Ukraine war started nearly four years ago, India has gone from sourcing just 2% of its energy needs in fiscal 2022 from Russia to 36% in FY25.
Moscow has provided sharp discounts on the international benchmark to Asian customers after Western countries shunned its supplies.
RIL is the top Indian importer with a share of 34%, followed by Indian Oil Corp. (16%) and Rosneft-owned Nayara Energy Ltd. (15%).
These sanctions are likely to impact RIL’s crude imports; however, state-run refiners may continue purchases through intermediary traders for now, PTI reported on Thursday. As per the report, industry sources indicated that PSUs are assessing compliance risks but are unlikely to halt Russian crude flows immediately.
