‘Large volume of our supplies don’t come through Hormuz’: Hardeep Puri assures fuel stability amid Middle East tensions
Iran-Israel war: Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri assured that all necessary steps will be taken to ensure the stability of supplies of fuel to Indians.
As tensions continue to rise in the Middle East, raising the likelihood of Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz, India is closely monitoring global oil trends.
Union minister for petroleum and natural gas, Hardeep Singh Puri, has reiterated that India has adequate oil supplies to meet its needs.
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“We have been closely monitoring the evolving geopolitical situation in the Middle East since the past two weeks,” Puri said in a post X. The Union minister noted that India has “diversified our supplies in the past few years and a large volume of our supplies do not come through the Strait of Hormuz now.”
Puri said that the nation's oil marketing companies have several weeks' worth of supply, adding that they “continue to receive energy supplies from several routes.”
The Union minister assured that all necessary steps will be taken to ensure the stability of supplies of fuel to Indian citizens.
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Last week, following the Israeli strikes on Iran, Puri asserted that India has enough energy supplies for the coming months. “India's energy strategy is shaped by successfully navigating the trilemma of energy availability, affordability and sustainability,” he said, adding that, “We have adequate energy supplies for the coming months.”
The brewing tensions over the closure of the Strait of Hormuz have led countries to think about the possible repercussions on oil prices. NDTV reported, citing sources, that the central government might considering reviewing the excise duty cuts on fuel if the crude oil price goes above $105 per barrel.
Impact on India if Strait of Hormuz is closed
India, the world's third-largest oil importer and fourth biggest gas buyer, imports over 85 per cent of its crude oil needs and roughly half its natural gas requirement, a news agency PTI report said. Of these, over 40 per cent of the oil imports and half of the gas imports come from the Middle East.
However, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which is the passage of around one-fifth of the world's oil consumption, might impact India's energy sector and global oil prices.
ALSO READ | Strait of Hormuz: Why the narrow waterway is at stake as Israel-Iran tensions rise
About 2 million barrels per day of crude oil out of India's total import of 5.5 million barrels per day transit through the Strait of Hormuz.
However, industry officials and analysts have reportedly said that India is not likely to lose sleep even if the Strait were shut down. This is because it has alternative sources, from Russia to the US to Brazil, already readily available to fill any void.
India's principal supplier of gas, Qatar, does not use the Strait of Hormuz for supplies to the nation, PTI reported. And other sources of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Australia, Russia, and the US would also remain untouched by the narrow waterway's closure.
While India imports around 90 per cent of its crude oil, more than 40 per cent of those imports originate from Middle Eastern countries, such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait, whose exports pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
However, in recent years, Russia has become India's largest supplier of crude oil, which is refined into fuels like petrol and diesel. In June, Indian refiners imported around 2 to 2.2 million barrels per day of Russian crude oil, the highest in the last two years.
