New Delhi: Amid an escalation in tensions between Israel and Iran, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri said that India has enough energy supplies for the coming months. India is the world's third-largest importer of crude oil and the fourth-largest importer of natural gas. The minister held a periodic review meeting on energy availability scenario with the chiefs of the Indian oil industry.
In a post on X, the minister said, "India's energy strategy is shaped by successfully navigating the trilemma of energy availability, affordability and sustainability," he said. "We have adequate energy supplies for the coming months."
Global oil prices have jumped to their highest level since January after Israel struck Iran, in a dramatic escalation of tensions in the Middle East. The rate of the benchmark Brent crude was up by more than 10 percent shortly after the news emerged, but eased a little. Brent was trading close to USD 75 a barrel, up more than 5 percent over Thursday's close.
India imports more than 85 percent of its crude oil needs and roughly half of its natural gas requirement. More than 40 percent of the oil imports and half of the gas imports come from the Middle East.
Despite the spike on Friday, oil prices are still more than 10 percent lower than where they were at the same point last year. They are also well below over USD 100 a barrel rate seen in early 2022 following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Russia is India's largest supplier of crude oil, which is refined into fuels like petrol and diesel in refineries. Qatar is India's biggest supplier of natural gas, which is used to make fertilisers, generate electricity and turned into CNG to run automobiles and piped to household kitchens for cooking.