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- Finland CREA Report: India Imported 5.4M Tons Russian Oil Via 30 False Flag Shadow Fleet Ships
New Delhi6 minutes ago
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After the Ukraine war started in 2022, India had increased oil imports from Russia. (Image is AI generated)
Finnish think tank CREA has claimed in its report that India imported 54 lakh tonnes of Russian crude from 30 ships which reached India using false identification.
The Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) said that India imported this oil between January and September 2025. During this period, India became the largest destination for such misidentified oil carrying vessels across the world.
Russia sent shadow fleet to avoid sanctions
The report said that to avoid sanctions imposed by Western countries after the Ukraine war, Russia has increased the use of its shadow fleet, i.e. old, unowned ships with no tracking system.
CREA claims that in the first nine months of 2025, a total of 113 Russian ships operated under false flag and carried approximately 11 million tonnes of crude oil worth Rs 21 thousand crore. Out of these alone, 54 lakh tonnes of oil worth Rs 10 thousand crores reached India.
Complete story of India and Russian oil import in 4 questions and answers
1. Why did India increase the purchase of Russian oil?
Sanctions were imposed on Russia after the Ukraine war started in 2022. Russia started selling its oil very cheap. Earlier India did not buy oil from Russia, but now Russian crude started getting cheaper by 20-30 dollars per barrel. Indian refinery companies (Reliance, IOC, Nayara, HPCL) saw the opportunity and bought a lot of oil.
In 2023-2025, India will start buying 17-19 lakh barrels of Russian crude every day. Due to this, Indian companies saved crores of rupees.
2. What sanctions did America and European Union impose on Russia?
- First of all, direct import ban of Russian crude.
- Then petrol and diesel made from Russian crude will also not be sold in the EU from January 2026.
- Direct sanctions on Russia’s two largest companies Rosneft and Lukoil in October 2025. Companies doing business in America cannot make any deal with them, otherwise they themselves may get caught in sanctions.
- Strict scrutiny of bank transactions started. If the payment is going to Rosneft or Lukoil, the bank will stop the payment.
3. What was the impact on India?
- America also imposed 50% tariff on India because we are buying Russian oil.
- Reliance has huge exports to Europe. If it uses Russian crude, Europe will not buy its produced petrol and diesel.
- Reliance has business in America, if sanction is imposed there then accounts can be frozen.
- Banks are scared that if they make payment to the Russian company, their account in America may be frozen. Therefore, banks started checking every transaction very closely.
- IOC, HPCL, Mangalore Refinery stopped buying Russian oil.
4. What is happening now and what will happen next?
- In November, India bought a lot of Russian oil (18.7 lakh barrels per day) because the stock needed to be replenished.
- Only 6-6.5 lakh barrels will arrive daily in December, the lowest in 3 years.
- Reliance stopped supplying Russian crude to its SEZ refinery from November 20. From December 1, fuel will be made there only from non-Russian oil.
- Companies are now taking oil from alternative Saudi, Iraq, UAE, America and African countries.
- Russian oil was cheap, now we will have to buy expensive oil. There may be some impact on the price of petrol and diesel, but the government will control it through subsidy or other means.
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