We did entire world a favour: Hardeep Singh Puri on India buying Russian oil

In a post on X, the minister pointed out Russian oil was never under any sanctions and there was only a price cap, which Indian entities also followed.

Effect on global oil prices

Earlier, in an interview to CNN, he had said that if the Indian government had not bought Russian oil, global oil prices would have shot up amid all the global uncertainties

Speaking to CNN's Becky Anderson on the sidelines of the annual energy industry event ADIPEC in Abu Dhabi on Thursday (November 7), Union minister Puri explained that global oil prices would have gone up to 200 dollars for everyone if India had not bought oil from Russia.

Oil will remain a key part of the world's energy supply for years to come, he said.

Further, Puri told CNN, "Earlier I said I hope there will be a reduction in oil price. Today I'm more confident that there will be."

"By 2026, when more energy is available in the market, as a student of the situation, I think that the likelihood of prices remaining stable and coming down are higher," Puri added.

Reduction in oil imports

Queried on why India reduced oil imports from Russia in October by around 10 per cent, Puri explained competitive oil rates in the market led to that situaion.

"There are other people willing to supply at the same competitive rate because the OPEC position is they don't deal with price," he said, adding that there's healthy competition going on.

“If you don't get it from one, you get it from someone else," he said. Further, he added that these are oil decisions taken in the marketplace.

“When we face February 22 there was 13 million barrels of Russian oil on the market suddenly if that oil had gone off the market and India had decided to shift its 5 million barrels to say suppliers in the Gulf, price of oil would have gone up to 200 a barrel. So, I think we did everybody a favour", Puri stressed.

He said technological changes such as green hydrogen and the transition to cleaner energy will change the global oil demand landscape in five years.

Restrictions on India

In his post on X, he also said not to forget that while some ill-informed commentators talked about putting restrictions on India, many other European and Asian nations bought much more crude oil, diesel, LNG, rare earth minerals worth billions of dollars from Russia.

Also, he added that India needs to ensure steady availability, affordability and sustainability of energy for our 7 crore citizens who visit a petrol pump everyday. That's our top priority, he reiterated.

Third largest

Meanwhile, a report issued by Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) in August said India is world's third largest oil-consuming and importing nation. In July, it had bought $ 2.8 billion worth of crude oil from Russia.

According to the report, imports from Russia, which were less than one per cent of the total oil imported in the pre-Ukraine war period, now make up for almost 40 per cent of India's total oil purchases.