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NEW DELHI: Indian state refiners have stopped buying Russian oil in the past week as discounts narrowed this month and US President Donald Trump warned countries not to purchase oil from Moscow, industry sources said.
India, the world’s third-largest oil importer, is the biggest buyer of seaborne Russian crude, a vital revenue earner for Russia as it wages war in Ukraine for a fourth year.
The country’s state refiners — Indian Oil Corp, Hindustan Petroleum Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp. and Mangalore Refinery Petrochemical Ltd. — have not sought Russian crude in the past week or so, four sources familiar with the refiners’ purchase plans told Reuters.
IOC, BPCL, HPCL, MRPL and the federal oil ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
The four refiners regularly buy Russian oil on a delivered basis and have turned to spot markets for replacement supply — mostly Middle Eastern grades such as Abu Dhabi’s Murban crude and West African oil, sources said.
Private refiners Reliance Industries and Nayara Energy, majority owned by Russian entities including oil major Rosneft, have annual deals with Moscow and are the biggest Russian oil buyers in India.
On July 14, Trump threatened 100 percent tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil unless Moscow reaches a major peace deal with Ukraine.
Indian refiners are pulling back from Russian crude as discounts shrink to their lowest since 2022, when Western sanctions were first imposed on Moscow, due to lower Russian exports and steady demand, sources said.
Refiners fear the latest EU curbs could complicate overseas trade including fund raising — even for buyers adhering to the price cap. India has reiterated its opposition to “unilateral sanctions.”
Trump on Wednesday announced a 25 percent tariff on goods imported from India from August 1, but added that negotiations were ongoing. He also warned of potential penalties for purchase of Russian arms and oil.
On Monday Trump cut the deadline to impose secondary sanction on buyers of Russian exports to 10-12 days from the previous 50-day period, if Moscow does not agree a peace deal with Ukraine.
Russia is the top supplier to India, responsible for about 35 percent of India’s overall supplies.
Private refiners bought nearly 60 percent of India’s average 1.8 million barrels per day of Russian oil imports in the first half of 2025, while state refiners that control over 60 percent of India’s overall 5.2 million bpd refining capacity, bought the remainder.
Reliance purchased Abu Dhabi Murban crude for loading in October this month, an unusual move by the refiner, traders said.

NEW YORK: Mourners packed a New York mosque on Thursday to honor a Bangladesh-born police officer who embraced the job of protecting his adopted city and gave his life for it when a gunman opened fire in an office building this week.
Officer Didarul Islam “did believe in the American dream, not as something handed down but as something built with your own hands,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told Islam’s family and friends as his fellow officers lined up rows deep outside the Bronx house of worship.
Dignitaries and members of the New York’s thriving Bangladeshi community also paid tribute to the fallen officer during a memorial that emphasized the importance he placed on his family, background and service to the city.
A married father of two with a third child on the way, the 36-year-old was working a New York Police Department-approved private security detail, in uniform, when he and three other people were killed Monday at the Manhattan skyscraper that houses the NFL’s headquarters and other corporate offices.
“To our family, he was our world. To the city, he was a proud NYPD officer who served with compassion and integrity. He lived to help others,” Islam’s widow said in a statement that a relative read on her behalf at the service at the Parkchester Jame Masjid mosque.
With officers stationed on surrounding rooftops for security, fire trucks used their ladders to hold a huge American flag over a nearby street. A flatbed truck carried a digital billboard showing photos of Islam and a commemorative message from his union.
 

White House sends condolences
After coming to the United States, Islam began building a career in the nation’s largest police force. He described policing as “a blanket of the community, there to provide comfort and care,” the police commissioner said.
Islam served as a school safety agent before becoming a patrol officer less than four years ago, and was promoted posthumously Thursday to detective.
“He could have gone into any other occupation he wanted, but he wanted to put on that uniform, and he wanted to protect fellow New Yorkers. And he wanted to let us know that he believed in what this city and what this country stood for,” Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, told the gathering. “That’s the greatest symbol of what we know we are as a country.”
In Washington, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt began her daily briefing by expressing President Donald Trump’s condolences to Islam’s family, saying he “made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of his fellow New Yorkers.”
A ‘humble, steady, and reliable’ officer
Like others who spoke, Imam Zakir Ahmed highlighted the officer’s immigrant background and Muslim faith. But said Islam “lived at a time when people like him are too often feared, vilified and made to feel like outsiders.”
“It’s time for New York and America to give back — to see us, to hear us, to protect our dignity, the way Officer Islam protected yours,” Ahmed said.
The eldest of several siblings, Islam supported his parents in Bangladesh, as well as his wife and two young sons in the Bronx, the imam said. The police commissioner said Islam worked a long day at a parade Sunday, then picked up private security hours Monday at the office building.
Deputy Inspector Muhammad Ashraf, the commander of the busy Bronx precinct where Islam worked, said he was a “humble, steady and reliable” officer.
“He knew what it meant to protect the place that gave him a new beginning, and in return, he gave everything back,” Ashraf said at Thursday’s service.
After the service, the streets filled with people, mostly men, kneeling in prayer. Some Muslim officers took part, as colleagues stood in formation behind them and looked on.

Later, officers saluted as Islam’s casket, draped in US and NYPD flags, was brought to a hearse for burial at a cemetery in Totowa, New Jersey.
Another victim, real estate firm worker Julia Hyman, 27, was mourned at an emotional service Wednesday at a Manhattan synagogue.
Funeral arrangements for the two others killed, security guard Aland Etienne and investment firm executive Wesley LePatner, have not been made public.
Governor praises officer for saving lives
Police identified the gunman as Shane Tamura, a 27-year old former high school football player who most recently worked in a Las Vegas casino’s surveillance department. Authorities say he believed he had a brain disease linked to contact sports and accused the NFL of hiding the dangers of playing football.
On Thursday, police said they found more than 800 rounds of ammunition in Tamura’s car and had recovered 47 shell casings in the building’s lobby and the office floor where Hyman was killed.
Police said Tamura had a history of mental illness, but they haven’t elaborated other than to say they found psychiatric medication prescribed to him at his residence in Las Vegas.
Officials said he was heading for the NFL’s office but took the wrong elevator and went by mistake to another floor. The gunfire seriously injured an NFL employee in the lobby.
Islam “saved lives. He was out front,” Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, said at Thursday’s service. “Others may be alive today because he was the barrier.”