$280M of sanctioned Russian oil end up at Lakshmi Mittal’s Punjab refinery

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 ￰0￱ 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 ￰1￱ crude was hauled from Russia’s Murmansk port, crossing international waters on vessels already hit with ￰2￱ 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 ￰3￱ the time the tankers reached the Gulf of Oman, the cargo switched to a different ship called the Samadha, which is not on the ￰4￱ list but is under EU ￰5￱ final leg took the oil directly into ￰6￱ 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 ￰7￱ 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 ￰8￱ 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 ￰9￱ timing of these oil deals couldn’t be worse for Indian ￰10￱ ￰11￱ 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 ￰12￱ enforces sanctions as India buys Russian barrels “We have implemented those ￰13￱ plan to enforce them,” said Matthew Whitaker, the ￰14￱ to NATO, speaking on Bloomberg ￰15￱ said the new measures are aimed at stopping Russia’s oil cash flow, which is helping fund the ￰16￱ was Trump’s first major financial hit on Moscow since taking ￰17￱ 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 ￰18￱ ￰19￱ betting on pressure and is fully expecting more battles on the trade front.

“President Trump holds all the ￰20￱ is just one card that he’s ￰21￱ are many more.” Despite the sanctions, market reaction has been ￰22￱ prices initially jumped, but it didn’t last. There’s confusion around how far Washington is willing to go to enforce the new ￰23￱ has been hit with sanctions for most of the war, but its oil exports are still ￰24￱ to Kpler, Russia has been moving 5 million barrels per day of crude this ￰25￱ of that, India has taken in 1.7 million b/d, while the second biggest buyer has been ￰26￱ your project in front of crypto’s top minds? Feature it in our next industry report, where data meets impact.