Oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday allayed fears of short supply of crude oil amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict and said that crude oil imports from Russia are minuscule at just 0.2 per cent of total such imports till January this fiscal.
“About the increased oil import concerns... we require total of five million barrels per day. Sixty per cent of it comes from the Gulf. We have imported from Russia just 0.419 million metric tonnes ... that is 0.2 per cent of total requirement (during April-January this fiscal),” Puri told the Rajya Sabha while replying to a supplementary to a starred question.
“We are monitoring the situation. As far as oil imports are concerned from Russia, contrary to what is played up in the media, it is minuscule,” the minister said.
According to the written reply tabled in the House, in 2020-21, India imported 85 per cent of its crude oil requirements and 54 per cent of its natural gas requirement. According to the Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell, India’s major sources of crude imports are Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Nigeria and the US.