Reliance Industries has partially unloaded a cargo of jet fuel in Italy. This is India's first export to the region since the EU ban on petroleum products derived from Russian oil came into effect on January 21, according to shipowners' data and trading sources, Reuters reports, writes UNN.
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India is one of the largest buyers of Russian oil, and market participants are closely monitoring its exports of refined oil to Europe for signs of trade disruptions that could lead to higher prices for products from other countries.
The EU ban on imports of petroleum products produced from Russian oil aims to reduce oil revenues that Moscow uses to finance the war in Ukraine.
Reliance operates two refineries at its Jamnagar complex – one focused on exports and one for the domestic market. On November 20, the company announced it would stop processing Russian oil at its export-oriented facility.
The Aframax tanker Liwa-V, chartered by Reliance, unloaded about 390,000 barrels of jet fuel, or about half of its cargo, at the port of Fiumicino near Rome between February 1 and 4, according to data from Kpler, Vortexa, and a trading source.
The Liwa-V arrived in Italy around January 8 and was outside the port for almost three weeks, data showed. The cargo was initially scheduled to be unloaded on January 24, two independent trading sources said.
"The unloading was delayed due to bad weather, the vessel has already unloaded a significant part of the cargo and is waiting outside the port for full unloading," a Reliance Industries spokesperson said.
As Western countries seek to reduce their reliance on Russian energy due to the war in Ukraine, India has been able to take advantage of discounts on oil offered by Moscow. According to Kpler, last year India exported 4.1 million metric tons of jet fuel to Europe, almost three times the volume supplied in 2021 before the conflict began, and from 2022 to 2025, it provided almost 15% of European jet fuel imports.
Reliance told Reuters that it provides European buyers and traders with written statements that Russian oil was not used to produce fuel exported to Europe.
"Reliance claims that the segregation of diesel flows is possible, and it can be expected that the company will explore workarounds such as FOB (free on board) sales or blending operations if European buyers remain cautious," said Sparta Commodities analyst James Noel-Beswick.
According to Kpler, LSEG, and two trading sources, only one other shipment of Indian jet fuel on the tanker Karpathos was heading to Europe in January.
Since the ban was introduced, Europe has not yet received any imported diesel fuel from India.