Saudi Aramco and Iraq’s state oil firm SOMO have halted crude sales to India’s Nayara Energy following European Union sanctions imposed in July on the Russian-backed refiner, three sources familiar with the matter said.
The suspension forced Nayara-majority-owned by Russian entities including Rosneft-to rely solely on Russian crude imports in August, according to the sources and LSEG shipping data.
Nayara typically sources about 2 million barrels of Iraqi crude and 1 million barrels of Saudi crude each month, but received no shipments from either supplier in August, shipping data from Kpler and LSEG showed.
SOMO and Nayara did not respond to requests for comment. Saudi Aramco declined to comment.
Two of the sources said the sanctions had caused payment issues for Nayara’s purchases from SOMO. The last SOMO cargo, a Basra crude shipment, was discharged at Nayara’s Vadinar port on July 29 by the VLCC Kalliopi, according to Kpler, LSEG and industry sources.
Nayara also received 1 million barrels of Arab Light from Saudi Aramco on July 18 aboard the VLCC Georgios, co-loaded with a similar volume of Basrah Heavy-its final Saudi delivery, the data showed.
The Russian Embassy in New Delhi said last month that Nayara is now receiving direct supplies from Rosneft.
The private refiner, which operates a 400,000 bpd plant at Vadinar accounting for about 8% of India’s refining capacity, has been running at 70-80% utilization due to difficulties in selling products under sanctions, the sources said. Since the EU measures, Nayara has relied on so-called “dark fleet” vessels to ship fuels after mainstream shippers pulled back, according to shipping reports and LSEG data.
