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9:57 12.11.2025 •
Australia stopped buying fuel directly from Russia but has imported more than 3m tonnes of its oil products since 2023, ‘The Guardian’ reveals.
Millions of tonnes of Russian oil have been traded through a port part-owned by Macquarie Bank and potentially sold on to Australian businesses, new data shows.
The identification of a new link between Australia and the trade in Russian-origin products exposes further gaps in government sanctions, as Australia lags behind the EU and the UK in tightening import rules.
Australia stopped buying fuel directly from Russia but has imported more than 3m tonnes of Russian-originating oil products since 2023, the Europe-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (Crea) has found.
Australia’s sanctions allow purchases via third countries, which Crea’s Europe analyst Vaibhav Raghunandan said had indirectly supported Russia’s oil production and the Kremlin’s tax revenues.
“This is a significant loophole being exploited by Australian buyers who, while on the right side of the law, are undoubtedly on the wrong side of the ethics of it,” Raghunandan said.
“It clearly undermines Australia’s support for Ukraine. It not only allows the continued flow of Russian oil but also allows Australian companies to profit off it.”
Since January 2023, Australia has bought nearly a quarter of its refined petroleum imports from Singapore, government data shows.
The south-east Asian nation has received more than 22m tonnes of refined oil products from Russia over that period, according to analysis of Kpler trade data by Mark Corrigan, an Australian chemical engineer, and verified by Crea.
The Shell petrol station operator and Australian defence force supplier, Viva Energy, buys oil from Vitol. Spokespeople for Vitol, Viva Energy and Trafigura each said their businesses acted in full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations, including sanctions.
They did not guarantee they had not bought or sold Russian-origin oil products to Australian businesses, consumers and government agencies, when asked.
Trafigura’s spokesperson said it did not trade with sanction-designated entities and Vitol’s spokesperson said it had rigorous policies and sought an open and transparent relationship with authorities wherever it operated.
The European Union and United Kingdom in October announced sanctions on third-party refiners of Russian material from 2026, including by targeting specific terminals and refineries.
Matching those sanctions would be essential to reduce oil revenue to the Kremlin, according to Dr Anton Moiseienko, if [refineries] “keep purchasing Russian oil, and then refined products go to places like Australia, and all of that combines to create a market that generates billions for the Russian government.”
…The moral of this story is a simple one: the West has created a system where profit is the most important thing. And no one in the world will refuse money in this System. Therefore, no sanctions can be global.
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