India importing crude from 40 countries; Argentina is new supplier: Hardeep Puri

Petroleum minister Hardeep Puri on Monday said that India is open to importing crude oil from all possible sources to meets its demand.

Addressing a press conference a day ahead of the India Energy Week 2025, the Union minister recalled how India diversified its crude imports from 27 countries to 40 countries.

Argentina is the new addition, he told reporters.

“From 27 suppliers, we have now 40 suppliers. We added another Argentina the other day. So we’ve got imports from 40 countries,” he said.

The imports from those suppliers though vary based on price advantage or in some instance because of proximity advantage.

US, Russia, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Iraq are among the big suppliers of crude to India.

“It’s a very dynamic situation, but we are open to imports from all sources,” he added.

India depends on imports for over 80 per cent of its crude oil requirement. Various steps have been taken by the government to increase the production of domestic crude oil and bring down imports.

The government is promoting usage of natural gas as fuel/feedstock across the country towards increasing the share of natural gas in economy and moving towards gas based economy, promotion of renewable and alternate fuels like ethanol, second generation ethanol, compressed bio gas and biodiesel.

India’s refined crude demand will peak later than in other major economies, placing the country in the spotlight driving this demand, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights.

The global commodities information services provider, recently in a note, said while alternative fuels are gradually shifting energy consumption patterns away from fossil fuels, the fossil fuel usage will remain significant in the foreseeable future.

At S&P Global Commodity Insights, they forecast that India’s refined product demand will reach 5.7 million barrels per day (b/d) by 2026.