HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd., a joint venture of Lakshmi Mittal’s Mittal Energy and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd., has stopped buying Russian crude oil. The ships used for the cargo weren’t under sanctions either.
“HPCL-Mittal Energy always acts in full compliance with government policy and regulations,” according to a company statement on Wednesday (29 October 2025). “All transactions and acceptances of shipping deliveries by HMEL are subject to due diligence and compliance procedures.”
HMEL is the first Indian firm to officially announce suspension of Russian oil imports after the US sanctioned two of Moscow’s biggest oil firms—Rosneft and Lukoil. The company bought Russian oil on a delivered basis—meaning the supplier made the shipping arrangements. It wasn’t aware of the ships that transported the cargo from Murmansk in Russia through Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, but said that the ships that eventually delivered the oil at Indian ports, were not under sanctions.
“HMEL had already taken the decision to suspend purchases…pending receipt of any outstanding orders,” according to the statement. The company operates an oil refinery at Bhatinda in Punjab.
Russia currently supplies nearly a third of India’s crude imports, averaging around 1.7 million barrels per day in 2025, of which approximately 1.2 mbd came directly from Rosneft and Lukoil, according to PTI. Most of these were bought by private refiners Reliance Industries Ltd. and Nayara Energy, with smaller allocations to state-owned refiners.
According to a Financial Times report, the Russian crude meant for HMEL was transported on US-blacklisted ships between July-September from the Arctic port of Murmansk to as far as the Gulf of Oman. The oil was transferred on high seas to different vessels.
“The final leg of the journey into India was undertaken on the Samadha—a tanker that is not on US sanctions lists—though it was blacklisted by the EU,” FT reported.
To this, HMEL said the ship Samadha, which delivered the crude to the port in India, was not under sanctions at the time of delivery.