What a cut in Reliance's Russian crude purchases would mean for India

India's largest private oil refiner Reliance Industries is reportedly halting purchases of Russian crude, following the U.S.' decision to sanction Russia's two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil.

Reliance has become a major buyer of Russian crude. In September, it purchased around 629,590 barrels of Russian crude per day from the two firms, out of India's total imports of 1.6 million barrels per day, according to data by commodities data analytics firm Kpler.

Over the same month last year, Reliance purchased around 428,000 barrels per day of oil from the Russian companies.

In fact, India's Russian crude imports used to account for less than 3% of its total crude import basket, but today account for one-third of India's crude imports, experts say.

Reliance has not responded t