Russia last week received its first shipment of gasoline from India to offset domestic fuel shortages caused by Ukrainian drone strikes on its oil refineries, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing ship tracking data.
According to market analytics firm Kpler, the Indian gasoline arrived at a Russian port on Wednesday, Aug. 5. It was reportedly produced by Nayara Energy, an Indian refiner partially owned by Russian state oil giant Rosneft.
Russian-flagged tanker Cyclone in mid-June reportedly loaded 42,000 metric tons of gasoline from the Vadinar refinery in western India and used a chain of shadow fleet tankers off the coast of Egypt.
Last month, Reuters reported that Russia had quietly begun purchasing gasoline from Indian refineries to stabilize domestic supplies. Russian officials have since claimed the domestic fuel market partially stabilized.
Moscow previously relied primarily on fuel imports from neighboring Belarus and Kazakhstan in response to Ukraine’s intensified drone attacks against Russian oil infrastructure.
