Despite higher discount, Russian crude oil imports by PSU refiners in September 2025, lowest since May 2022
India remained the second-largest buyer of Russian fossil fuels in September importing a total of €3.6 billion.
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The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) said that the drop in India’s imports of Russian crude oil in September 2025 was largely led by government-controlled refiners, whose cargoes from Moscow fell to their lowest levels since May 2022.
The decline comes even as discounts by Russia rose to more than $5 per barrel during the month. The average price of Urals dropped by 2 per cent in September, and was trading at $62.3 a barrel.
India remained the second-largest buyer of Russian fossil fuels in September importing a total of €3.6 billion. Crude oil dominated purchases at 77 per cent (€2.5 billion), followed by coal at 13 per cent (€452 million), and oil products at 10 per cent (€344 million).
India’s imports of Russian crude saw a 9 per cent month-on-month (m-o-m) reduction to their lowest volumes since February (2025), despite their total imports recording a marginal increase, it added.
“The drop in Indian imports of Russian crude has been mainly led by a 38 per cent m-o-m drop in State-owned refineries’ imports from Russia. Indian State-owned refineries’ Russian crude imports have dropped to the lowest levels since May 2022,” noted CREA.
Not as planned
In August 2025, India was the second-largest buyer of Russian fossil fuels, importing a total of €3.6 billion. Crude oil dominated purchases at 78 per cent (€2.9 billion), followed by coal at 14 per cent (€510 million), and oil products at 8 per cent (€282 million).
According to global real-time data and analytics provider Kpler, India imported around 1.58 million barrels per day (mb/d) crude oil from Russia in September 2025, a decline of 7 per cent m-o-m and 17 per cent y-o-y.
The decline comes even as the discount by Russia on crude oil cargoes rose during September 2025.
“In September, the discount on Urals crude increased by a massive 39 per cent month-on-month, averaging $5.13 per barrel against Brent. This discount may also have been impacted by the implementation of the agreed lower price cap level of $47.6 per barrel. The lower cap implemented by the EU, UK, Canada, Norway, Switzerland and Australia came into force on September 3 (2025),” CREA added.
Fossil fuel exports
Lower cargoes also impacted Russia’s revenues from fossil fuels. In September, its monthly fossil fuel export revenues saw a 4 per cent month-on-month decline to €546 million per day — the lowest since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, said CREA.
Seaborne crude oil revenues saw a marginal 1 per cent month-on-month increase to Euro 173 million per day, proportional to a 3 per cent increase in the volumes exported month-on-month. India is Russia’s largest seaborne crude oil buyer.
From 5 December 2022 until the end of September 2025, CREA said, adding that China bought 47 per cent of Russia’s crude exports, followed by India (38 per cent), Turkiye (6 per cent) and the EU (6 per cent).
Published on November 7, 2025
