A joint venture co-owned by Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal purchased Russian oil shipments transported partly on vessels blacklisted under Western sanctions, according to customs data and satellite tracking reviewed by the Financial Times.

HPCL-Mittal Energy Limited (HMEL), which operates the Guru Gobind Singh Refinery in Punjab, received at least four crude oil shipments between July and September this year. The deliveries, valued at around $277 million, originated from Russia’s Arctic port of Murmansk and included two grades of crude – Novy Port and Arco.

HMEL is a joint venture between the Mittal Group and state-run Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), with each holding a 49 per cent stake. The oil was supplied by Varda LLC, a St Petersburg-based company, as indicated in customs filings reviewed by the Financial Times.

The crude was initially transported aboard four sanctioned ships – Belgorod, Danshui, Dignity, and Primorye – from Murmansk to the Gulf of Oman. The cargo was then transferred offshore to another vessel, Samadha, for the final leg to India. While Samadha itself was not under US sanctions, it had previously been blacklisted by the European Union and later sanctioned by the United Kingdom.

All five vessels were reported to have engaged in deceptive shipping practices, including switching off their transponders or broadcasting false positions to conceal their activities. Satellite imagery confirmed Samadha’s presence alongside the sanctioned vessels during ship-to-ship transfers in the Gulf of Oman.

Samadha made repeated trips to Mundra port in Gujarat, where the oil was unloaded before being piped 1,000 kilometres inland to HMEL’s refinery in Bathinda, Punjab. Despite its transponder data showing routine voyages to Oman, satellite imagery revealed that the tanker was often several nautical miles away from its stated location.

It remains unclear who arranged for the use of the sanctioned tankers or whether HMEL was aware of their involvement. The registered owner and manager of Samadha, Seychelles-based Erika Freight Limited, reportedly shares an address with multiple other “shadow fleet” vessels, according to corporate records cited in the report.

Varda LLC, the listed supplier, could not be reached for comment and has no online presence or contact details in Russian corporate registries.

The findings come amid mounting US pressure on Indian refiners to curb imports of Russian oil. The US Treasury has recently expanded sanctions on Russian energy giants Rosneft and Lukoil to tighten enforcement of the G7 price cap and limit Moscow’s oil revenues.

India has become one of the largest importers of Russian oil since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, currently buying about 1.7 million barrels of seaborne crude per day—second only to China—driven by discounted prices.

A former US trade and security official cautioned that companies must maintain “full visibility in the transport chain” to avoid entanglement in sanctioned operations. “Entities are at risk if they are one hop or two hops away from a sanctioned activity,” the official said.

Experts warn that firms purchasing oil moved through such opaque networks face legal, financial, and reputational risks. Western regulators have sanctioned numerous vessels for similar deceptive behaviour, such as “spoofing” or going “dark,” to enforce compliance and limit Russia’s oil trade.