NEW DELHI: Tech giant Microsoft on Wednesday said it has restored services to Nayara Energy, a Russia-linked Indian oil and fuel company, two days after the latter claimed its access to Microsoft services was suddenly cut off.
In a statement, Microsoft said it is “committed to supporting all its customers in India and worldwide and has restored services for Nayara Energy.” The company also said, “We are engaged in ongoing discussions with the European Union towards service continuity for the organisation.”
Nayara Energy runs fuel retail outlets in India. Russian oil major Rosneft owns a 49.13% stake in the firm, while the rest is mostly owned by an Indian group backed by foreign companies Trafigura and UCP Investment Group.
Earlier this week, Nayara filed a petition in the Delhi High Court. It alleged that Microsoft suddenly stopped essential services without warning. The company asked the court to order Microsoft to restore access to protect its rights and keep its digital systems running.
According to Nayara, Microsoft blocked its access because of new sanctions from the European Union (EU) against Russian companies. The EU announced the new sanctions on July 18 in response to Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine. The sanctions target Russia’s energy, banking, military sectors, and trade with the EU.
Meanwhile, Nayara Energy has reportedly reduced its operations at its 400,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) facility following the announcement of new European Union (EU) sanctions on Russian crude oil. The report citing industry sources said that Nayara is currently operating the refinery at 70% to 80% of capacity, down from over 100% in each of the three months through June 2025.
Nayara operates India’s third-largest refinery, located at the port of Vadinar in the western state of Gujarat, accounting for approximately 8% of the nation’s total refining capacity of 5.2 million bpd. The company also oversees a retail network of more than 6,750 petrol stations across the country.
