The Airbus plane, owned by Indian Reliance Industries, landed at Moscow's Vnukovo airport. The owner of the largest refinery in the world is worried about EU sanctions that will ban the import of petroleum products from Russian oil in January next year.
On July 18, the EU adopted the 18th package of sanctions against Russia and will ban imports of petroleum products from Russian oil from January 26 next year. After the refusal of the European Union from petroleum products and raw materials and India became Russia's largest supplier of diesel fuel to the region, which transferred a third of imports to Russian oil.
The main supplier of diesel to Europe from India is Reliance Industries, which owns the world's largest refinery in Jamnagar. Half of the raw materials it receives from Russia.
According to Bloomberg, on Wednesday, an Airbus plane belonging to Reliance Industries landed at Vnukovo. It is not known whether the company's owner and billionaire Mukesh Ambani was on board.
It is known that the last time the plane of an Indian company flew to the Russian capital last December, and now, the agency reports, Reliance Industries has begun to try alternative purchases.
"According to traders, Reliance bought Murban oil in Abu Dhabi. This is an extremely rare deal. It occurred after the EU announced new sanctions against Russia. A private oil refinery is not a regular buyer of premium grade oil from the UAE, which is usually more expensive than Russian Urals or heavier Middle Eastern grades," the agency writes.
Reliance is seeking to diversify its oil purchases and find alternatives to Russia, which is its largest source of oil, the agency writes. It notes with reference to Kpler data that this year Russia supplied almost half of Reliance's oil imports.
"In turn, about one-fifth of the total exports of products were sold to Europe. The process of refining Russian oil into diesel fuel for sale to Europe has put Reliance in the line of fire between EU and Moscow," continues Bloomberg.
It's too early to say whether Reliance will abandon Russian oil, but traders say there are signs that the company is looking for alternatives.
"However, it is unclear how the mega-refinery will receive about 600,000 barrels of crude oil per day from other producers and at what price," the agency's sources said.