The loss of Ukrainian oil refineries this summer has forced traders to compensate with imports, purchasing diesel fuel even from India, which imports a significant portion of its crude oil from Russia, an analyst said at the weekend.
Russia is attempting to win its war with Ukraine in part by attacking Ukrainian oil refineries and fuel storage facilities with drones and missiles.
Ukraine uses similar tactics in its defence, and neither side has been transparent about the extent of the damage on its territory.
“In June, the (Ukrainian) Kremenchug oil refinery, (which) took dozens of cruise and ballistic missiles, was finally destroyed,” Serhiy Kuyun from the Ukrainian fuel consultancy A-95 said on Facebook.
“Therefore the market rushed to buy up what was available. And what was available was India. We are not transporting it; international traders are transporting it to Turkey and Romania, and we are buying what is already available,” he said.
He noted that Indian fuel meets post-Soviet, including Ukrainian, standards and said some had even been purchased by the Ukrainian defence ministry, which never comments on fuel purchases.
He did not specify import volumes but said Indian diesel unexpectedly had a market share of about 10%.
Prior to the full-scale war with Russia that began in 2022, Ukraine imported diesel fuel mainly from Belarus and Russia to compensate for the lack of domestic production. Since 2022, it has imported mainly from European countries to the west.
A-95 said that in the first half of the year, imports of diesel fuel fell by 13% year-on-year to 2.74 million metric tons.
