Russia Buying Gasoline From India To Tackle Shortages

Russia, whose refining capacity has come under significant strain in recent months, has started seaborne imports of gasoline from India (the same country it exports millions of barrels of oil to), Reuters reported citing industry ​sources, in an effort to mitigate fuel shortages triggered by ‌Ukrainian attacks on its energy infrastructure.

Fuel shortages are being felt across Russia's 11 time zones with rationing, long queues at filling stations and a record gasoline price increase, as a result of relentless Ukraine strikes on the country's refineries. 

On Tuesday, the Kremlin said that Russia was in contact with ​other countries and discussing imports of fuel at acceptable prices.

An industry source said ⁠at least 60,000 metric tons of gasoline have been dispatched from India to Russia. Another ​source said that two tankers, with parcels of 30,000 to 40,000 tons each, have been sent. A third ​source said that in total, Russia plans to import 400,000 tons of gasoline from various countries each month, including from neighboring Belarus, which has already been exporting fuel to Russia.

Gasoline consumption in Russia is at least 110,000 ​tons per day in summer, when demand for fuel is high.

It was not immediately clear which ​Indian refiner will be supplying gasoline to Russia.

President Vladimir Putin acknowledged on Sunday at a meeting with government ministers and other ‌officials ⁠that Ukrainian drone strikes on oil refineries had triggered fuel shortages in some regions, but said that Russia was dealing with them. 

Elsewhere, Belarus almost tripled gasoline rail supplies to Russia to more than 70,000 tons in the first half of June versus the first half of May, according to Reuters ​calculations and sources.

Russia's parliament approved amendments ​to its tax ⁠code last week aimed at tackling the fuel shortages due to Ukrainian drone attacks, while also offering subsidies on fuel imports, pegged to Indian ​delivery costs and prices.

If Russia is the world's gas station, then India is rapidly emerging as the world's refiner: in what is emerging as a giant processing round trip, India's crude oil imports from Russia surged to a record ​high in ⁠June, ship tracking data from LSEG and Kpler showed, as refiners snapped up Russian barrels to mitigate the impact of the Strait of Hormuz closure on other sources of supply.

Russian oil accounted for more ⁠than half ​of India's overall imports in June, up from 36.5% ​in May, the Kpler data showed.

And now India is selling back the refined product back to Russia. 

India, the world's third-largest oil importer, received about 2.70 million barrels per day of oil ​from Russia in June, preliminary data from Kpler and LSEG showed.