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Lakshmi Mittal’s Indian refinery has taken in Russian oil for the first time since Donald Trump’s new sanctions dropped, and the shipments came in on ships that the U.S. government had already blacklisted.
That’s according to satellite images, shipping logs, and customs records reported by the Financial Times. Mittal’s joint venture, HPCL-Mittal Energy Limited (HMEL), accepted at least four crude cargoes at the Guru Gobind Singh Refinery in Punjab between July and September, all traced back to Russia.
The crude was hauled from Russia’s Murmansk port, crossing international waters on vessels already hit with U.S. sanctions. These ships didn’t even try to hide, they shut off their transponders, or in some cases, gave out fake GPS signals to disguise their true locations.
By the time the tankers reached the Gulf of Oman, the cargo switched to a different ship called the Samadha, which is not on the U.S. sanctions list but is under EU blacklisting. That final leg took the oil directly into India.
Mittal refinery received $280 million worth of crude
The value of the four shipments was close to $280 million, and there’s still no clarity on whether HMEL even knew what ships were involved. The shady transport tactics suggest someone, somewhere, was working hard to dodge the restrictions.
What’s also unclear is who coordinated the use of sanctioned vessels in the first place. What’s not unclear is that the Guru Gobind Singh Refinery, part-owned by Mittal Energy, ended up receiving the goods.
Lakshmi Mittal, who made his fortune in steel, is best known today as the executive chairman of ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest integrated steel and mining company.
He’s been living in the UK for years, but recently told people close to him that he’s planning to leave the country over upcoming tax changes. He’s also been a member of Goldman Sachs’s board since 2008.
The timing of these oil deals couldn’t be worse for Indian companies. The U.S. Treasury just ramped up its Russia play by putting Rosneft and Lukoil (Russia’s top two oil giants) on a new blacklist last week.
That’s part of Trump’s campaign to choke off Moscow’s war funding and push Vladimir Putin into some kind of peace negotiation with Ukraine.
Trump enforces sanctions as India buys Russian barrels
“We have implemented those sanctions. We plan to enforce them,” said Matthew Whitaker, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, speaking on Bloomberg TV.
He said the new measures are aimed at stopping Russia’s oil cash flow, which is helping fund the war. This was Trump’s first major financial hit on Moscow since taking office. The idea is to force Putin to negotiate or at least call a ceasefire.
“This will maybe be the thing to unlock President Putin coming to the table and ending this war,” Whitaker said.
The U.S. is betting on pressure and is fully expecting more battles on the trade front. “President Trump holds all the cards. This is just one card that he’s playing. There are many more.”
Despite the sanctions, market reaction has been mixed. Crude prices initially jumped, but it didn’t last. There’s confusion around how far Washington is willing to go to enforce the new rules.
Russia has been hit with sanctions for most of the war, but its oil exports are still flowing.
According to Kpler, Russia has been moving 5 million barrels per day of crude this year. Out of that, India has taken in 1.7 million b/d, while the second biggest buyer has been China.
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