The timing of the U.K. sanctions is significant, coming days after U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer led a large trade delegation to Mumbai and U.K.-India relations appeared to touch a new high. (picture for representational purposes only)
| Photo Credit: YORUK ISIK
The British government has sanctioned the Vadinar (Jamnagar) oil refinery owned by Nayara Energy Ltd., on Wednesday. The sanctions are part of the U.K.’s sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, Lukeoil and Rosneft, which own 49.13% of Nayara. The E.U. had already sanctioned the refinery on July 18.
The timing of the U.K. sanctions is significant, coming days after U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer led a large trade delegation to Mumbai and U.K.-India relations appeared to touch a new high. New Delhi and London also signed a comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) on July 24, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited the U.K.
Like the E.U., Britain had announced Russia sanctions on July 18 a well, but these were focused on the Russian intelligence community. The Hindu reached out to the U.K. Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to ask about the timing of the sanctions.
Wednesday’s sanctions comprise an asset freeze, director disqualification and transport sanctions and sanctions on U.K. trust services (financial sanctions). The list of 90 sanctions, includes four oil terminals in China and 44 tankers in Russia’s so-called ‘shadow fleet’. The U.K. has frozen a total of £28.7 billion of Russian assets since the country invaded Ukraine in February 2022, according to U.K. government data. The country had also sanctioned Russia’s third and fourth largest oil giants Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas in January 2025.
U.K. Chancellor Rachel Reeves, currently in Washington DC, said that the U.K. government was “ramping up pressure on companies in third countries, including India and China,,” as per multiple reports in the international press.
“We are sending a clear signal: Russian oil is off the market,” Ms. Reeves said in a statement. State-owned refineries in India had cut imports of Russian crude by more than 45% between June and September 2025 as per data from analytics company Kpler, The Hindu had reported this week. Nayara , however, had reportedly increased its imports of Russian crude in 2025, with levels reaching a record for the year in October.
Nayara had imported 100 million barrels of Russian crude (worth over $5 billion) last year, the U.K. government said.
Published – October 15, 2025 10:03 pm IST
