Photo:maritimeoptima.com

@ India-West News Desk

NEW DELHI — A Russian oil tanker bound for India has abruptly reversed course in the Baltic Sea, underscoring the widening disruption to Moscow’s crude exports after fresh sanctions by the Trump administration on energy giants Rosneft and Lukoil.

Bloomberg reported that while passing between Denmark and Germany on October 28, the vessel turned around, slowed dramatically, and came to a halt.

The news outlet said that the tanker Furia, which loaded about 730,000 barrels of crude from Rosneft at the port of Primorsk on October 20, was en route to Sikka in Gujarat. The site is home to refineries operated by Reliance Industries and Bharat Petroleum.

The Furia, Bloomberg said, is blacklisted by both the European Union and the United Kingdom. The U Turn of the ship, highlights India’s increasingly delicate balancing act between energy security and geopolitical pressure.

Indian refiners have begun suspending purchases of Russian crude in response to the new U.S. measures, which demand that all transactions involving Rosneft and Lukoil be completed by November 21.

Reliance Industries, India’s largest private refiner and a key buyer of discounted Russian oil since 2022, recently confirmed it will comply with the sanctions and Indian government stipulations.

President Donald Trump has been saying that India has agreed to work on its energy and oil imports from Russia in return for lowering of sanctions he has placed on the country. India’s state-run refiners are also scaling back shipments.

To fill the gap, Reliance has reportedly stepped up purchases of Middle Eastern crude.