New Delhi: With the new tariff regime of the United States kicking in from August 27, India's oil refining officials are looking at receiving Russian oil at a discounted rate beyond that deadline. However, a Business Standard report, noting "ship tracking data and official sources", has said that gains accrued since 2022 from India's purchase of Russian oil grades have helped two private players make more profit than the state-run refiners.

These two private players are Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries and Russian Rosneft-operated Nayara Energy. Together, they have accounted for over 40 per cent of the average 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) supplies India has sourced from Russia.

According to the August 23 news report, "state-run refiners, cosseted by New Delhi's fixed fuel price regime, have gained less" compared to private refiners." it said, the oil imports "are not definitely distributed, with private sector refiners becoming the biggest beneficiaries".

Quoting data from maritime intelligence agency Kpler, it said, "Just two Indian refiners, both private, accounted for a combined 881,000 barrels per day (BPD) of the 1.8 million bpd in total imports of discounted Russian crude oil in 2025 till date."

In total, there are seven Indian importers for the oil.

Facing a series of sanctions having invaded Ukraine in 2022, Russia aimed at capturing "an average 32 per cent share of the Indian crude oil import market on an average over the last 42 months from two per cent in 2021."  This import came at the expense of the United States, Saudi Arabia  and Nigeria, etc.

The news report has pointed out that in June 2025, the share of Russian oil in Indian market touched a record 45 per cent, "meaning, virtually, every second barrel of India's overseas crude came from Russia."

Ambani-owned Reliance Industries "has been the biggest beneficiary of this exercise even though the extent of profits is unknown," said the report.

Since Indian state-run refiners like ONGC have a responsibility towards price controlled domestic fuel market, these two private players get to export a large portion of their output  to Europe and Asia at lucrative prices. "Reliance and Nayara together accounted for 81 per cent of India's fuel exports this year in volume terms, primarily of middle distilates like diesel and jet fuel," the news report underlined.

"At 914,000 bpd, Reliance accounted for 71 per cent of India's exports."

The report highlighted that Reliance Industries' Jamnagar refinery exported around 67 per cent of its production, and "in June imports of Russian oil at 746,000 bpd made up over half of Jamnagar's 1.36 million bpd capacity."