Energy: If US sanctions Russia, India can secure oil from others, says Puri
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: India can secure oil for its needs even if the US imposes sanctions on Russian exports over the Ukraine issue, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri said on Thursday.
“I’m not worried at all. If something happens, we’ll deal with it,” he said at an industry event in New Delhi.
Speaking during UrjaVarta 2025 in the national capital, Puri said India is confident of meeting its oil needs from alternative sources, even if Russian supplies are affected by secondary US sanctions.
Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump warned that countries purchasing Russian oil exports could face sanctions if Moscow fails to reach a peace agreement with Ukraine within 50 days.
India should be able to deal with any problems with Russian imports by seeking supplies from other countries, Puri said, and noted there are many new suppliers coming onto the market, such as Guyana, and supplies from existing producers like Brazil and Canada could be increased.
Besides, India is increasing oil exploration and production activities.
“India has diversified the sources of supply and we have gone, I think, from about 27 countries that we used to buy from to about 40 countries now,” he said.
India’s oil imports from Russia rose marginally in the first half of 2025, with private refiners Reliance Industries Ltd and Nayara Energy making about half of the overall purchases from Moscow.
Russia remained the top supplier to India, accounting for about 35 percent of the South Asian country’s overall supplies, followed by Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates.
In case Russian supplies are hit, Indian Oil Corp (IOC) will “go back to the same template (of supplies) as was used pre-Ukraine crisis when Russian supplies to India were below 2 percent” company Chairman AS Sahney told reporters at the event.
