PM: Iran war a concern for India’s energy needs

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Monday, said in the Lok Sabha that the war in Iran presents a “concerning situation” given India imports significant quantities of crude oil and gas from Gulf nations. Expressing serious concern, the PM called upon the nation to remain prepared and united, just as it had stood together during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A day after reviewing the West Asia situation in the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), Modi informed the nation through Parliament that the difficult global conditions caused by the West Asia conflict are likely to persist for a long time.

In a statement in the lower house, Modi addressed concerns related to the impact on fuel, fertilisers, national security and other areas in India as well on its nationals residing in the West Asia region, detailing steps taken by the government to ensure that “ordinary families face as little trouble as possible”, and said a unanimous voice should go out to the world from India’s Parliament on this crisis.

Reaffirming India’s unwavering commitment to humanity and peace, Modi said the dialogue and diplomacy remain the only path to resolution.

Informing the House that he has engaged with all relevant West Asian leaders and urged them to reduce tensions, Modi emphasised that attacks on commercial ships and obstruction of international waterways like the Strait of Hormuz are “wholly unacceptable”.

He said endangering any life in this war runs counter to the interests of humanity and “India’s effort is to encourage all parties to arrive at a peaceful resolution as soon as possible”.

On India’s diplomatic response to the West Asia conflict, the Prime Minister said India’s stand has been clear from the very beginning, when the US and Israel attacked Iran and the latter retaliated by targeting its Gulf neighbours and Israel, “one of expressing deep concern, advocating de-escalation, and opposing attacks on civilians and on energy and transport infrastructure”.

“India, through diplomacy, is making continuous efforts for the safe passage of Indian ships even amidst the war environment. Due to such efforts, several of our ships that were stuck in the Strait of Hormuz have also arrived in India in recent days,” he said.

The prime minister also drew the attention of the House to the internal security dimension of the crisis, warning that certain elements attempt to exploit such situations. He said all security agencies have been placed on alert and that security across all domains, coastal, border, cyber, and strategic installations, is being further strengthened. “Whether it is coastal security, border security, cyber security, or strategic installations, the security of all is being reinforced,” he said.

Urging patience, restraint, and vigilance, and cautioning against those who may seek to exploit the situation by spreading falsehoods, engaging in black-marketing, or hoarding, Modi appealed to all state governments to ensure strict monitoring and swift action against such elements.

Expressing his abiding faith in the collective resolve of the nation, the Prime Minister said that when every government and every citizen of this country walk together, “we can challenge every challenge, this is our identity, and this is our strength”.

The prime minister said the crisis has been going on now for more than three weeks, and it is having a very adverse impact on the global economy and on people’s lives. The entire world is urging all parties for the earliest resolution of this crisis, he said.

This region is important to India for yet another reason, as nearly one crore Indians live and work in the Gulf countries and among the commercial ships that sail in these seas, the number of Indian crew members is also very high, he said. “India’s concerns are naturally greater, and therefore it is essential that a united and unanimous voice goes out to the world from India’s Parliament on this crisis,” he said.

Modi underscored how the energy diversification strategy pursued over the past decade has proven its worth in the current crisis. He informed the House that India has expanded its energy import sources from 27 countries to 41 countries over the past 11 years, thereby reducing dependence on any single region.

Modi said India has more than 5.3 million metric tonnes of strategic petroleum reserves, and the country is also working on arrangements for more than 6.5 million metric tonnes of storage. Apart from this, he said, there are reserves held by the domestic oil companies.

“In the last 11 years, our refining capacity has increased significantly, and the government is in constant touch with suppliers from different countries. The effort is to ensure that oil and gas supplies continue from wherever possible,” he said.

Highlighting the scale of the evacuation effort, the Prime Minister said more than 3,75,000 Indians have safely returned to India since the war began, including approximately 1,000 Indians from Iran alone, of whom over 700 are young medical students.

He said the government is working with a comprehensive short-term, medium-term, and long-term strategy, supported by strong economic fundamentals, sector-specific stakeholder consultations, and a dedicated Inter-Ministerial Group that meets daily to assess and resolve every difficulty in India’s import-export chain.

He said another question is the impact of the war on agriculture, but the good part is that the country’s farmers have filled the food grain reserves, so India is well prepared in terms of food security.

“We are also making efforts to ensure that the Kharif sowing takes place properly. For this, the government has made adequate arrangements for fertilisers to deal with any emergency. In the past as well, our government did not let any global crisis impact our farmers,” he said. Modi assured that as the summer season has begun in India, electricity demand has increased, but all power plants in the country have adequate coal stock available.

India’s Strategic Oil Reserves at Two-Thirds Capacity: GOVERNMENT

New Delhi: The Government on Monday informed the Parliament that India’s strategic oil reserves, designed to provide cover for about 9.5 days of supplies during disruptions, are currently sitting at only two-thirds capacity. India, the world’s third-largest energy consumer and heavily dependent on imports for about 88% of its crude oil needs, has built strategic underground storage facilities with a total capacity of 5.33 million tonnes across 3 locations — Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, and Mangalore and Padur in Karnataka — to store crude oil used for producing fuels such as petrol and diesel.

“Quantity of the crude available in the caverns varies depending on market conditions,” Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Suresh Gopi said in a written reply in the Upper House.  

“Currently, Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve Ltd (ISPRL) has around 3.372 million tonnes of crude stock available, which is around 64 per cent of the total storage capacity.”

ISPRL is the special purpose vehicle that established Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) facilities with a total capacity of 5.33 million tonnes of crude oil at three locations, which can act as a buffer for short-term supply shocks.

“The actual reserve is a dynamic number depending on the stocks and actual consumption, both of which are not static,” he said.

The stockpile has been in focus since the breakout of war in the Middle East snapped the supply of crude oil, natural gas and LPG from the Gulf countries to India. India spent $110 billion in the first 11 months of the current fiscal year on importing about 226 million tonnes (or 88.7 per cent of oil needs).

Besides, $12.4 billion was spent on importing half of the natural gas consumed in the country from April 2025 to February 2026. Also, 60 per cent of its LPG came from overseas.

Gopi said in July 2021, the Government had approved the establishment of two additional commercial-cum-strategic petroleum reserve facilities with a total storage capacity of 6.5 million tonnes, — Chandikhol (4 million tonnes) in Odisha and Padur (2.5 million tonnes) in Karnataka. “Work for construction at Padur has been awarded on October 1, 2025,” he said.

In July 2021, the Government also approved the commercialisation of Phase -I SPRs under which an agreement was signed between Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) of the UAE, and ISPRL, permitting ADNOC to use Cavern-A with 750,000 tonnes capacity at Mangalore.

“The current total national capacity for storage of crude oil and petroleum products is 74 days, which includes the capacity of storage facilities of the oil marketing companies (OMCs),” he said.

“Currently, these PSEs import crude oil from 41 countries, including new suppliers like the USA, Nigeria, Angola, Canada, Columbia, Brazil and Mexico in addition to traditional suppliers in the Middle East such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and Qatar,” he added.