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EU Bans India And Turkey From Profiting From Russian Oil Product Supplies

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EU Bans India And Turkey From Profiting From Russian Oil Product Supplies

"The back door is closed.

The 18th package of sanctions approved by the EU countries envisages a ban on imports from third countries of refined products derived from Russian oil. The main suppliers are India, where Rosneft operates a half-owned refinery, and Turkey, which has made billions selling supposedly refined Russian fuel to Europe.

The EU wants to close the road for Russian oil that reaches it "through the back door," announced more than a month ago European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen: "We are imposing a ban on imports of refined products based on Russian oil." In the first quarter of 2025, India and Turkey purchased a total of 1.8 million bpd of crude oil from Russia, and the EU imported about 450,000 bpd of diesel and other refined products from them. Not all of the volumes entering the EU are based on feedstock from Russia, but such transactions benefit refiners because they buy crude at a discount and sell fuel at market prices.

The EU has indicated, among other things, that it is imposing a ban on imports of petroleum products from "Rosneft's largest refinery in India." Although the company itself is not named, the restrictive measures are imposed on the Vadinar refinery, OpIndia points out. It was built by India's Essar Oil and is now owned and operated by Nayara Energy, in which Rosneft holds a 49.13% stake.

In the past three years, India, Russia's second-largest oil buyer, has nearly doubled its exports of petroleum products to Europe, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin said at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum in June.

Till now, EU sanctions regulations allowed the purchase of products made from Russian oil if they were substantially refined. But in Turkey, some companies only pretended to ship such goods to Europe. Some terminals, even without refining capacity, have significantly increased their purchases of both crude oil and fuel from Russia while at the same time strongly increasing exports to the EU.

From the embargo's introduction in early February 2023 to the end of February 2024, Turkey imported a total of €17.6 billion worth of Russian oil products - 105% more than in the previous similar period. And its fuel exports to the EU increased by 107% over the same time, the Center for Democracy Research and the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) calculated in 2024.

CREA calculates that from the moment the EU imposed an embargo on Russian oil until June 2025, Turkey became the largest buyer of Russian oil products - 26% of total Russian exports for almost 40 billion euros. India ranks 4th. As for crude oil, India bought almost €100 billion worth of crude oil (38% of total exports) during this period, while Turkey is in 4th place with 6%.

European diplomatic leader Kaya Kallas also said that sanctions are being imposed for the first time against a registry of Indian-flagged vessels. This will allow the EU to take action against Indian-flagged tankers for their support of the Russian oil trade, OpIndia noted.

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