Steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal’s energy joint venture in India has purchased Russian oil transported on vessels that are listed under sanctions, according to an analysis by the Financial Times using satellite imagery, shipping data, and customs records.
The Guru Gobind Singh Refinery in Punjab, a major oil refinery partially owned by Mittal Energy, a long-term UK resident, received at least four crude shipments valued at nearly $280 million this year, which were mostly transported from Russia on ships under sanctions.
The oil was carried on US-blacklisted vessels from July to September, traveling from the Arctic port of Murmansk to the Gulf of Oman. The final segment to India was completed by the Samadha, a tanker not on US sanctions lists but blacklisted by the EU.
All ships involved in the transportation used deceptive practices to conceal their actions, such as turning off their transponders or transmitting false positions.
Emily Kilcrease, a director at the Center for a New American Security and a former US trade and security official, stated: “If I were advising the buyer, I would ensure you have enough visibility in the whole transport chain to avoid being one or two hops away from sanctioned activity.”
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Best known as the executive chair of ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest integrated steel and mining group, Mittal has developed a global business empire. The billionaire, who has been on Goldman Sachs' board since 2008, told his associates earlier this year he planned to leave the UK due to changes in tax rules.
The revelations about the shipments come as the US seeks to increase pressure on Indian companies to refrain from buying Russian oil. Washington last week imposed sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil, Russia’s two leading oil producers, aiming to compel Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate with Ukraine.
HPCL-Mittal Energy Limited (HMEL) — the refinery's owner — initially did not respond to requests for comment.
After publication, HMEL released a statement noting the employment of “due-diligence and compliance procedures” including “counterparty KYC, sanctions screening, vessel history, and prior port-clearance.” It added that it followed Indian laws.
However, HMEL stated that the terms of its oil purchase meant it was not “aware of the details of other ships that crude may have been transported on, nor any attempts by those ships to disguise their positions to pick up crude from sanctioned vessels.”
The company also revealed it “decided to suspend further purchases of Russian crude” in light of the US, EU, and UK’s recent sanctions on Russia.
HMEL is a joint venture comprising part of the Mittal group and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, an Indian state company, with each holding a 49% stake. The remaining 2% is held by financial institutions, according to the company.
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Before last week’s US sanctions, Ukraine’s western allies had already imposed a price cap aimed at limiting Russia's trade profits. Oil tankers that failed to adhere or employed deceptive shipping practices have also been sanctioned by the EU, UK, and US.
India has become one of the leading importers of Russian crude since Putin initiated a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, benefiting from reduced prices as western buyers distanced themselves.
Russia has exported an average of 5 million barrels a day of seaborne crude this year, with 1.7 million b/d being purchased by India, according to data analytics group Kpler. The next largest share was bound for China.
Kilcrease remarked: “The major consumers of this oil genuinely want [it]. They’re willing to accept a certain risk of coming under US Treasury scrutiny.”
The four deliveries identified by the FT all exhibited similar patterns, with the Samadha frequently entering and leaving the port of Mundra in Gujarat, western India, to collect the oil delivered there on the sanctioned vessels.
Based on its transponder signals, the Samadha displayed that it was traveling to and from Oman, where it would dock and load. Afterward, it would resume signaling its journey back to India.
Yet, the vessel was often not where it claimed to be. Satellite images analyzed by the FT during this time, compared with transponder data, revealed that once the Samadha departed the port, it often emitted a falsified position masking its true location.
While it pretended to be making shuttle runs to Oman, the Samadha was actually meeting other ships further offshore. Each of the four journeys involved a rendezvous with another ship, captured in satellite images.
Each image shows a large grey ship, resembling the Samadha, anchored in the Gulf of Oman, side by side with another tanker. This position indicates a ship-to-ship transfer of goods.
The ships appear to be the Belgorod, Danshui, Dignity, and Primorye — all of which had previously been added to sanctions lists by the US. The images of these vessels match other images of these ships acquired by the FT.
TankerTrackers, a maritime intelligence firm, verified the ships' identities during their surveillance of the Gulf of Oman — an area they typically monitor for ship-to-ship transfers involving Iranian oil.
In September, the Samadha signaled to other vessels that it was sailing to Oman to load with crude and then planned to return to India.
But satellite data indicates the ship frequently engages in "spoofing" — sending out deceptive position signals.
Transporting Russian oil, the sanctioned ship Belgorod enters the Gulf and deactivates its transponder, making tracking difficult.
Satellite images show the two ships together. The Samadha is 7 nautical miles away from its claimed position.
Each time, the sanctioned ships sailing from Murmansk would go “dark” as they neared the Gulf of Oman, turning off their transponders for three to six days—the exact timeframe during which each documented transfer occurred. They would then reactivate them shortly after.
The dates of the Samadha’s journeys also match customs record filings, viewed by the FT, submitted by refinery owner HMEL to Indian authorities for purchases from Varda LLC, a St Petersburg oil supplier. Three of the forms specifically mention the Samadha as the carrier.
The filings also state that the four shipments' total value was $277 million.
The records further specified that all the shipments were for two types of Arctic oil — Novy Port and Arco. In January, the US targeted Russia’s Arctic oil industry with sanctions, introducing restraints on tankers and other infrastructure impacting Arco and other grades.
The Guru Gobind Singh refinery, located in Punjab's Bathinda area, is the 10th largest in India, capable of processing 11.3 million tonnes a year. At Mundra, the crude shipments were fed into a 1,000km pipeline to the inland refinery.
The FT was unable to contact the Samadha’s registered owner and manager, Erika Freight Limited, about which little information is known beyond its connection to the vessel.
The Samadha has since come under UK sanctions. Its owner shares a registered address in the Seychelles with 13 other so-called shadow fleet vessels — ships against which sanctions enforcement is difficult due to opaque ownership.
The FT also could not reach Varda LLC in St Petersburg, which has no online presence and lacks contact information in Russian corporate records.
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