Saudi Aramco and Iraq’s state oil firm SOMO have stopped shipping crude to India’s Nayara Energy after European Union sanctions hit the Russian-backed refiner, according to people familiar with the matter.
The move forced Nayara, which is majority-owned by Russia’s Rosanne and other Russian entities, to rely entirely on Russian crude in August, shipping data from LSEG showed.
Nayara usually buys about 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil and 1 million barrels of Saudi oil every month. But in August, neither supplier sent cargoes, according to data from LSEG and analytics firm Kpler.
SOMO and Nayara did not respond to requests for comment. Saudi Aramco declined to comment.
Two sources said the sanctions caused payment issues between Nayara and SOMO, though they did not give specifics.
The last Iraqi delivery was a cargo of Basra crude that arrived at Nayara’s Vadinar port on July 29, data showed. A week earlier, on July 18, the refiner received 1 million barrels of Saudi Arab Light crude along with the same amount of Basrah Heavy, its last Saudi shipment.
Nayara has been sourcing crude directly from Rosneft, a Russian embassy official in New Delhi confirmed last month.
But the sanctions are weighing heavily on its operations. Nayara is running its 400,000 barrel-per-day refinery in western India at only 70–80% capacity because of difficulties selling fuel, according to sources. The company, which accounts for about 8% of India’s refining capacity, has also struggled to ship products, relying on so-called “dark fleet” vessels after other shipping firms backed out.
In July, the company’s CEO resigned. Last week, Nayara named a senior executive from Azerbaijan’s SOCAR as its new chief executive.
