Hardeep Puri assures fuel stability amid Middle East tensions

India, the world's third-largest oil importer and fourth-biggest gas buyer, has enough energy supplies to meet requirements for several weeks and continues to receive supplies from several routes, Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said amid escalating tensions in the globe's biggest energy supply regions. In a post on X, the minister said the government has 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," he said.

#WATCH | Israel-Iran conflict | Cork, Ireland: Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri says, "... As far as the global situation today is concerned, the escalation of tensions in the Middle East was not entirely unexpected. We had foreshadowed this. The government, under the PM, has… pic.twitter.com/UwAGEVWdQb

— ANI (@ANI) June 22, 2025

The Union minister assured that all necessary steps will be taken to ensure the stability of supplies of fuel to Indian citizens.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.