Record oil is coming from Russia
The worldwide crude oil market is currently going through great turmoil. The increasing tension between America and Iran has directly blocked the sea route through which about 20 percent of the world’s total oil supply passes. We are talking about the Strait of Hormuz. The halt in movement of ships there has had a direct impact on India’s oil imports. However, amidst this global crisis, Indian refineries have taken a step which has changed all the market equations and has secured the supply of petrol and diesel in the country.
Supply boom from Middle East
If we look at the figures for March, there has been a decline of 13 percent in India’s total crude oil imports as compared to February before the war started. The biggest reason behind this is the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran and America have strictly banned the passage of ships through this route. The situation is so serious that very few oil tankers have been able to reach India in the last two months. Last Saturday, two Indian ships trying to cross this route were also attacked. The result was that there was a huge decline of 61 percent in the oil coming from the Middle East. This figure has fallen to 1.18 million barrels per day. With this, the share of Middle East in India’s total oil imports has come down to a low of 26.3 percent.
Russia became a shield in crisis, bought record oil
After the supply stoppage from the Middle East, India rapidly changed its strategy. To immediately meet this shortage, Indian refineries bought Russian crude oil floating in the sea indiscriminately. New Delhi became the first country to get a special waiver to buy such banned oil from America. Due to this, India’s oil import from Russia almost doubled to a record level of 2.25 million barrels per day in March. That is, half of India’s crude oil in March came from Russia alone. The Trump administration has recently extended this exemption to buy Russian oil from the sea for about a month, due to which this supply is expected to remain uninterrupted in future also.
OPEC’s dominance broken, new options emerge
This entire geopolitical development has also caused a major reshuffle in the global list of oil suppliers. While Russia continues to be the number one supplier to India, Saudi Arabia has overtaken Iraq to take the second position. To fill the gap in the Middle East, India has also turned to African countries. This is the reason why Angola has now become India’s third largest oil supplier, followed by UAE and Iraq. Due to these changes, the share of OPEC countries in India has also fallen to its lowest ever level of 29 percent.
There will be no shortage of fuel in India
Despite such huge global turmoil, the Indian government and oil companies have secured the needs of the domestic market. This simply means that there will be no shortage of fuel in the country and prices have been saved from going out of control. Interestingly, India’s total Russian oil imports in the financial year ending March 2026 were 6.2 percent less than the previous year. This was done so that an important trade agreement could be signed between New Delhi and Washington. With this step, the share of Russian oil in total imports reduced from 36 percent to 33 percent.
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