How global oil dynamics made Abu Dhabi unit a vital trade artery for Reliance

The company, which is involved in oil trading, purchases crude oil from suppliers abroad and sends it to Sikka port for processing at Reliance’s huge refinery in Jamnagar. Refined products are then purchased from the refinery to be supplied abroad.

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries is India’s largest company in terms of revenues and reported consolidated revenues. ₹10.71 trillion (about $125 billion) in fiscal year 2025.

Oil-trade Reliance International generated $3.9 billion in revenue in its first year of operations ending March 2022. But starting the next year, revenues ballooned to $30.8 billion. The company reported revenue of $58.1 billion for the 15-month period ending March 2025. This includes revenues from both the sale of crude oil to Reliance Industries and the sale of refined petroleum products to other companies.

Mint We have not been able to determine whether this subsidiary is engaged in trading Russian crude oil, but the rise in its fortunes coincides with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022; This excited the global oil markets and made Russian oil available at huge discounts to Indian and Chinese buyers.

Since FY24, Reliance Industries has classified Reliance International as a significant subsidiary, a label shared only by its five other units. The Company defines significant subsidiaries as subsidiaries with revenue or net worth exceeding one-tenth of the company’s consolidated revenue or net worth, respectively.

Other significant subsidiaries include: Jio Platforms Ltd, telecommunications unit Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, retail units Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd and Reliance Retail Ltd and another oil trading entity Reliance Global Energy Services (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.

material work

Acquired Reliance Industries in FY25 ₹According to Reliance International’s annual report, 1.48 trillion worth of products, especially crude oil, come from Reliance International. Sold same year ₹1.97 trillion worth of refined petroleum products per unit. Sales to Reliance International accounted for 18.4% of Reliance Industries’ consolidated revenue.

Reliance Industries meaningfully increased its purchases of Russian oil from April 2022, and by July of the same year, Russia had replaced Iraq as the company’s top supplier, according to data from Kpler, a commodity and energy market intelligence firm.

A spokesperson for Reliance Industries said the company operates through a number of subsidiaries in different parts of the world, including the UAE, Singapore, the US and the UK. These subsidiaries, located in key global trading hubs, “give us operational flexibility and efficiency by assisting us with cheap crude oil and product placement in the regions where they operate,” the spokesperson said in an email.

The company has been operating in the UAE since as early as 2006-07, sourcing raw materials from the Middle East and North Africa and selling products in these regions, the spokesperson said.

“Since Reliance International is a subsidiary of RIL, there is no financial gain involved but only works as an effective vehicle for crude oil supply and product placement,” the spokesperson added.

Trade shift to UAE

The United Arab Emirates, particularly Dubai, has emerged as a major beneficiary of Western sanctions on Russia, as oil traders, shippers and financiers turn to the Middle Eastern country in the wake of sanctions and other sanctions. The restrictions made it difficult to do business with Russians from other major hubs such as Geneva and Singapore.

“Many oil traders have shifted their operations from Switzerland to Dubai since the Russian oil sanctions to interact and trade with Russian oil without falling foul of the sanctions,” said Vaibhav Raghunandan, an EU-Russia analyst at the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), a non-profit think tank based in Finland.

For example, Dubai-based companies do not need to impose the $60-per-barrel price ceiling on Russian crude that most Western countries impose, he said.

“This means there is significant growth in ship managers and operators outside the UAE. Our analysis previously found that 41% of Russian ‘shadow’ tankers are registered in the UAE,” Raghunandan said. he said.

The UAE also serves as a hub for storage terminals used to distribute products destined for Europe and the Atlantic Ocean, he said, adding that flows from UAE-based terminals could see an increase with the EU’s upcoming ban on petroleum products produced from Russian crude. Indian exporters could theoretically use the UAE as a channel to access the European market. However, Raghunandan said the data does not show any migration to UAE-based terminals so far.

Reliance International is based in the Abu Dhabi Global Market, an international financial center and free economic zone in the capital of the UAE, which provides zero corporate taxes for up to 50 years to attract business.

Russian oil is on the rise

Reliance Industries has been the largest buyer of Russian crude oil in India since the beginning of the Ukraine invasion. Of the 1.22 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil it bought on average between April 2022 and October 2025, about 425,000 barrels, or more than a third, were from Russia, according to Kpler data. Iraq, the second largest supplier, shipped an average of 218,000 barrels during the period, down from an average of 274,000 barrels in the previous 15 months.

In December 2024, the company signed a 10-year agreement with Russia’s Rosneft to purchase 500,000 barrels per day of crude oil. Reliance’s purchases of Russian oil have intensified in recent months; More than 600,000 barrels per day have been purchased regularly every month since March, accounting for more than half of the company’s total crude oil purchases.

However, Reliance stopped the flow of Russian oil last month following US sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies and collected over 12 million barrels of crude oil from the Middle East and America on the spot market in October. Reuters reported last week, quoting trade sources.

Donald Trump administration in the USA in October Sanctions were imposed on Rosneft and Lukoil in an attempt to weaken Vladimir Putin’s ability to finance the war in Ukraine. The United States has also threatened secondary sanctions against foreign financial institutions and companies that continue to do business with these sanctioned companies; This situation is expected to push Indian buyers to cut their purchases of Russian oil.

Meanwhile, the European Union has closed an important export market for Indian refiners buying Russian crude oil by imposing a requirement that fuel imported into the bloc from 2026 must be proven to be of non-Russian origin.

Reliance Industries said last month that it was assessing the impact of sanctions and would comply with EU guidelines on imports of refined products into Europe.

“As is customary in the industry, supply contracts evolve to reflect changing market and regulatory conditions. Reliance will address these conditions as it maintains relationships with its suppliers. Reliance is confident that its time-tested, diversified crude sourcing strategy will continue to provide stability and reliability in its refinery operations to meet domestic and export requirements, including in Europe,” a Reliance Industries spokesperson said last month.