Reliance Industries, the top private refiner in India, has warned in its annual report that tariff uncertainties and geopolitical events could affect global crude oil flows and oil market balances.
“Continuing geopolitical and tariff-related uncertainties may affect trade flows and demand-supply balance,” the conglomerate Reliance Industries, owned and chaired by Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, said in its annual 2024-2025 report.
“Global crude oil prices continue to remain volatile on the back of dynamic interplay of various factors such as geopolitical volatility in the Middle East, redirection of shipping routes, OPEC+ and non-OPEC production decisions, regional capacity additions and downstream supply-demand realignments, evolving sanctions and trade tariff regimes and rate of recovery of Chinese economy,” Reliance added.
The refiner also noted that tariffs and sanctions key are among the factors to watch this year, alongside stagnating demand in China due to EV penetration, aviation growth in Asia, and geopolitical uncertainties.
Earlier this week, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order enacting an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods, explicitly targeting India’s ongoing imports of Russian crude oil. This order increases the total tariff rate on Indian exports to the United States to 50%, the highest level for any country under current U.S. policy.
The 50% tariff will take effect 21 days after August 6.
The executive order also establishes a process for the potential imposition of similar tariffs on other countries that directly or indirectly import oil from the Russian Federation, the White House said.
India has said that the U.S. tariff of 50% due to Indian imports of Russian oil is “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable.”
“We have already made clear our position on these issues, including the fact that our imports are based on market factors and done with the overall objective of ensuring the energy security of 1.4 billion people of India,” the Indian government said on Wednesday.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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