“Nearly ₹40,000 Crore of Indian Public-Sector Money Went into Rosneft-Linked Russian Assets, and in the Same Period Rosneft Entered Essar’s Indian Refinery — Was This Merely a Coincidence?” — Kishore Tiwari

 “Nearly ₹40,000 Crore of Indian Public-Sector Money Went into Rosneft-Linked Russian Assets, and in the Same Period Rosneft Entered Essar’s Indian Refinery — Was This Merely a Coincidence?” — Kishore Tiwari

Tiwari demands a Parliamentary White Paper and CAG-led forensic investigation into the entire ONGC–Rosneft–Essar–Nayara money trail

Nagpur | 9 September 2026

Farmer leader and rural economy activist Kishore Tiwari has demanded that the Union Government disclose the complete financial trail behind the extraordinary sequence of transactions involving Indian public-sector oil companies, Russia’s Rosneft, Essar Oil and what is today Nayara Energy.

In 2016, ONGC Videsh, Indian Oil, Oil India and Bharat PetroResources invested approximately ₹36,000 crore at the then-prevailing exchange rates — broadly approaching ₹40,000 crore — in Rosneft-linked Russian oil assets.

In almost the same period, a Rosneft-led consortium moved to acquire Essar Oil, including the strategically important Vadinar refinery, in a transaction valued at approximately ₹86,000 crore.

Tiwari said:

“My question to the Modi Government is simple. Nearly ₹40,000 crore of Indian public-sector money went into Rosneft-linked Russian assets. In the same period, a Rosneft-led consortium entered one of India’s most important refinery transactions involving Essar Oil. Where did the money ultimately flow? Did Indian public-sector capital directly or indirectly strengthen Rosneft’s financial capacity to undertake the Essar acquisition? The Government must answer with documents, not political rhetoric.”

The flow of Indian public-sector money to Rosneft-linked assets is documented

During 2016, ONGC Videsh, Indian Oil, Oil India and Bharat PetroResources acquired interests in Rosneft’s Vankorneft and Taas-Yuryakh assets in Russia.

Taken together, the Indian public-sector investments amounted to approximately ₹36,000 crore at contemporary exchange rates.

Important components of these acquisitions received approval from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister.

“This was therefore not merely a private transaction between private corporations,” Tiwari said. “Indian state-controlled companies deployed enormous amounts of capital, and major transactions received approval at the highest levels of Government. The Indian public consequently has every right to demand accountability for the economic outcome.”

Contemporary international reporting also stated that the Indian investments would help Rosneft manage debt associated with its earlier massive acquisition of TNK-BP.

Tiwari said:

“The question whether Indian public-sector capital strengthened Rosneft’s balance sheet is therefore not an imaginary one. When Rosneft subsequently participated in the massive Essar Oil acquisition in India, tracing the source and application of funds became a legitimate matter of public interest.”

Then came the approximately ₹86,000-crore Essar transaction

In October 2016, the Rosneft-led consortium announced the acquisition of Essar Oil and associated assets in a transaction valued at approximately ₹86,000 crore.

At its heart was the strategically important Vadinar refinery in Gujarat.

Tiwari said:

“We are not declaring, without the underlying banking and treasury records, that the identical rupees invested by Indian PSUs in Russian assets were directly routed back into Essar. But the chronology is sufficiently extraordinary to create a prima facie case for an independent forensic investigation.”

“If these transactions were completely independent, commercially sound and in India’s national interest, the Government should publish the records and establish that fact. Why should a transparent Government fear a forensic money-trail examination?”

Parliament itself contains an extraordinary contradiction

The Union Government confirmed in the Rajya Sabha the massive investment by Indian public-sector companies in Russian oil projects.

Yet, in the same parliamentary response, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas stated that it was “not aware of the financial details” pertaining to Rosneft’s acquisition of Essar Oil.

Tiwari termed this extraordinary:

“How can a Ministry overseeing public-sector companies involved in transactions worth tens of thousands of crores with Rosneft simultaneously say that it was unaware of the financial details of Rosneft’s approximately ₹86,000-crore transaction in India?”

“Was this administrative negligence, institutional compartmentalisation, or a system in which different pieces of the financial transaction were deliberately kept apart? The Government must explain.”

Essar obtained a major route to deleveraging; 23 lenders released pledged shares

The sale of Essar Oil provided the heavily indebted Essar Group with a major route to reduce its debt burden.

In 2017, a consortium of 23 lenders, led by major banks including SBI and ICICI Bank, approved the release of pledged Essar Oil shares, clearing an important obstacle to completion of the transaction.

Tiwari said:

“A farmer who defaults on a ₹2-lakh loan does not see his land security casually released. When pledged securities connected with a transaction involving tens of thousands of crores are released, citizens are entitled to know the valuation, conditions, recoveries and outstanding exposure of every lender.”

The Government and the banks should therefore disclose how much each lender had outstanding before the transaction, what security it held, how much money it recovered from the Essar Oil transaction, what liabilities remained and what subsequent recoveries were made.

Essar Steel: use the correct figure — approximately ₹8,455 crore financial-creditor haircut

Tiwari stressed that political criticism must be based on accurate figures.

In the Essar Steel insolvency resolution, admitted financial-creditor claims were approximately ₹49,473 crore, while financial-creditor realisation was approximately ₹41,018 crore.

The resulting financial-creditor haircut was therefore approximately:

₹8,455 crore — about 17.1 per cent.

Tiwari said:

“There is no need to falsely describe Essar Steel as a 99-per-cent haircut case. The official figure itself raises substantial public-policy questions. ₹8,455 crore is not a small amount. How many distressed farmers could be relieved, irrigation projects completed, rural hospitals strengthened and government schools rebuilt with such resources?”

The Government should additionally disclose the treatment of operational creditors, corporate and personal guarantees, subsequent recoveries and the ultimate net impact on public financial institutions.

What happened to the Ruia promoter guarantees?

The question did not necessarily end with the Essar Steel corporate resolution.

Proceedings and documents relating to personal and corporate guarantees associated with the erstwhile Essar Steel facilities have continued to surface, including guarantees associated with Ravi Ruia and Prashant Ruia.

Tiwari demanded disclosure of the original value of those guarantees, amounts invoked, amounts recovered, outstanding enforceable claims and any proposed assignment or transfer of guarantee rights.

“If the entire liability was conclusively settled years ago, why do recovery and assignment questions surrounding promoter guarantees continue to arise?” he asked.

“One country cannot have two systems of economic justice”

Tiwari attacked what he described as the deeper political issue behind the transactions:

“A Vidarbha farmer may be driven to despair over a ₹2-lakh agricultural loan. To obtain a farm-loan waiver he must cross layers of eligibility conditions. But when corporate debt runs into thousands of crores, an entire architecture of foreign investment, debt restructuring, release of securities, insolvency resolution and sophisticated financial arrangements becomes available.”

“Recovery for the poor and restructuring for the powerful cannot become India’s permanent model of economic justice.”

Tiwari clarified that he was not alleging, without evidence, that any individual politician personally received money, nor was he asserting as an established fact that the exact money invested by ONGC Videsh and other Indian PSUs was directly round-tripped through Rosneft into Essar.

“But that distinction cannot be converted into an excuse for secrecy,” he said.

Trace the entire ₹40,000-crore public-money trail

Tiwari demanded that the Union Government table an immediate White Paper before Parliament and order an independent forensic financial investigation under the leadership of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

The investigation should reconstruct the complete chain:

Indian public-sector funds → Rosneft-linked Russian oil assets → Rosneft’s financial position → funding of the Essar Oil acquisition → repayment to Indian lenders → subsequent Nayara ownership and financial structure

The investigation should determine the source, movement, application and ultimate economic beneficiary of the funds, rather than treating every transaction as an isolated event.

The Government should disclose the Cabinet and CCEA files, PSU investment valuations, funding arrangements, Rosneft–Essar acquisition funding sources, Russian-bank financing, the reasons and conditions behind the 23-lender security release, bank-wise Essar recoveries, the Essar Steel haircut, the status of promoter guarantees, and the present-day return on Indian public-sector investments in the Russian assets.

Tiwari concluded:

“Nearly ₹40,000 crore of Indian public-sector capital went into Rosneft-linked Russian assets, and in the same period a Rosneft-led consortium entered an approximately ₹86,000-crore Essar transaction involving a major Indian refinery. That documented chronology is serious enough to demand investigation.”

“I am not asking the country to pronounce guilt before examining the records. I am asking the Modi Government to open the records.”

“A Government that demands an account of every rupee from a distressed farmer must itself account for tens of thousands of crores of public-sector money. Public money is not the private treasury of any Government or corporate house. If every transaction was clean, commercially justified and in the national interest, publish the White Paper, open the files and let the documents establish the truth.”

Kishore Tiwari

Farmer Leader and Rural Economy Activist

Nagpur, Maharashtra