Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri informed on Sunday that India is closely monitoring the changing geopolitical situation in the Middle East in the past two weeks, and a large volume of India's oil supply does not come through the Strait of Hormuz because the government has been diversifying its crude import basket.
The petroleum minister wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter), "We have been closely monitoring the evolving geopolitical situation in the Middle East since the past two weeks. Under the leadership of PM @narendramodi Ji, we have diversified our supplies in the past few years and a large volume of our supplies do not come through the Strait of Hormuz now."
"Our Oil Marketing Companies have supplies of several weeks and continue to receive energy supplies from several routes. We will take all necessary steps to ensure stability of supplies of fuel to our citizens," he added.
This comes at a time when oil markets are expected to open sharply higher after US' airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities — an escalation that has raised the risk of retaliation against vital energy infrastructure across the Gulf, the Financial Times reported.
With crude markets closed for the weekend, the reports said that traders are preparing for a volatile start when they reopen, amid fears that Iran could target oilfields, export terminals or tankers in the Strait of Hormuz — a critical chokepoint for global energy flows.
Also Read - Oil prices set to rise after US strike on Iran raises fears of Gulf energy retaliation
Moneycontrol had reported that due to the ever-changing geopolitical dynamics in the oil-rich Middle East region, the Indian oil refiners have tied-up for crude oil supply for the coming three months, and the country is also maintaining strategic oil reserves for emergency situations.
India’s total oil reserves stand at around 74 days; where IOCL inventory is for 40-42 days, government’s special purpose vehicle Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL) has reserves for over 9 days and rest is maintained by BPCL and HPCL.
Keeping Iran-Israel conflict in mind, the India’s oil refiners have been sourcing more oil from Russia and the US in June in order to mitigate supply-related risks in the Middle East. The imports from Saudi Arabia and Iraq have also fallen this month.
Preliminary data by global trade analytics firm Kpler showed that India is importing a total of 2.16 million barrels per day (bpd) of Russian oil in June — which is the highest in last two years — and marks a sharp increase from the 1.85 million bpd purchased in May.
The domestic crude oil imports from the US stands at 439,000 bpd in June — a big jump of almost 66 percent from a month ago, when it supplied 265,000 barrels of oil.
India imports around 40 percent of crude oil from Russia, 40 percent from Middle East countries including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the UAE, Kuwait, among others. Remaining oil supply comes from the US, West African nations and some other suppliers.
Earlier, the petroleum minister had shared that India has diversified its crude import basket substantially and the country is comfortably placed to meet fuel supply needs.
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