Reliance Industries Ltd, India's largest refining company, has resumed imports of discounted Russian crude after a pause triggered by US sanctions on Russia's largest oil companies Rosneft and Lukoil.
The company is buying barrels from non-sanctioned suppliers for its refinery in Gujarat.
Reliance has contracted Aframax tankers through RusExport and is routing flows to a 660,000-barrel-a-day plant that supplies domestic consumers.
Reliance's return to the market is likely to ease the decline in India's purchases of Russian oil. Local officials forecasted that Russian crude imports this month would more than halve to 800,000 barrels a day from an average of 1.9 million barrels a day in November.
Reliance suspended purchases from Russia after the United States imposed sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil on 22 October.
Alongside its 660,000-barrel-a-day Jamnagar refinery supplying the domestic market, Reliance also operates a 700,000-barrel-a-day export-focused facility at the same site.
The export-oriented refinery last received a shipment of Russian crude on 20 November. Since then, every shipment of Russian crude has been diverted to Reliance's refinery serving the domestic market.
The price of Russia's Urals benchmark crude has fallen to about US$34 a barrel, one of the clearest signals that US sanctions on Moscow are working.
