India resilient to navigate global turbulences, more crude coming from Western Hemisphere: Petroleum Minister Hardeep Puri

India has developed resilience to navigate global turbulences, Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Tuesday (September 16, 2025), adding that this has been bolstered by “more and more” crude oil coming into the global market from the Western Hemisphere, and more gas expected to enter the market from 2026-27 onwards.

Referring to the present geopolitical scenario, the Petroleum Minister, speaking at KPMG’s annual energy conclave ENRich 2025 stated that while the world was undergoing turbulence, “we [India] deal with the issues that we have direct control over but today we have resilience to navigate them because partly because there is enough oil available in the world”. 

India and its oil sector find themselves mired in a broader geopolitical setting triggered by U.S. President Donald Trump’s 50% tariffs imposed on Indian products this July. It also entailed a 25% penalty for procuring crude from Russia. Notwithstanding a potential understanding in sight with Washington’s chief trade negotiator Brendan Lynch meeting his Indian counterpart Rajesh Agrawal on Tuesday, India’s continued procurement of Russian oil continues to be a point of contention between India and the U.S.  

Other than the geopolitical currents, Mr. Puri also took note of India’s current refining capacity. He stated that India’s refining capacity is the fourth largest in the world. Additionally, he estimated, “we will very soon enhance our current refining capacity from about 260-270 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA) with arrangements in place to increase it to 320 MMTPA”. 

Developing strategic reserves

Speaking at the same event, Prasad Panicker, exective chairman at privately-owned refiner Nayara Energy said Indian refineries have enough resilience to navigate the geopolitical currents. “We have to accept there is a lot of disturbance in supply chains, technology transfer and the type [being supplied] but our refineries are hugely flexible where different types of crude can be processed,” he stated.  

However, he added India requires more strategic reserves to ensure global currents do not trigger an immediate impact.

“When I say strategic reserves, it should not be for crude alone, there are essential chemicals and catalysts, among other things, which must be adequate to ensure operations are not impacted,” he stated. “On a long-term, we have to create an ecosystem where they are indigenously available. It is sad despite our refining capacity we have to buy them from abroad. This would ensure we have adequate resilience going forward.”