New Delhi, March 5. Crude oil prices rose by more than 2 percent on Thursday amid increasing tension in the Middle East. Prices have surged due to supply disruptions as Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz. In early morning trade, the benchmark crude April contract on the Intercontinental Exchange was trading 2.43 per cent higher at $83.26 per barrel. At the same time, the April contract of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) on New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) increased by 2.63 percent to reach $ 76.63 per barrel.
According to reports, a container ship passing through the Strait of Hormuz was attacked by a projectile, causing damage to the ship. Continuous increase in oil prices may impact India’s import bill. If the price of crude oil increases by $ 1 per barrel for the entire year, India’s import bill could increase by about Rs 16,000 crore. Meanwhile, according to government sources, India is currently in a relatively safe position regarding crude oil, LPG and LNG. The country has about 25 days of crude oil reserves and 25 days of petroleum products, which also includes oil that is coming to India’s ports via ships.
India imports more than 85 percent of its total crude oil needs, of which about 50 percent of the oil comes from countries in the Middle East, which reaches India mainly through the Strait of Hormuz. After the Iran war, the supply through this route has been affected. However, India has diversified its sources by increasing oil imports from Africa, Russia and the US and strengthened energy security by building strategic reserves.
In the last few years, India has increased oil imports from Gulf countries as well as other countries, due to which large quantities of oil supply no longer comes through the Strait of Hormuz. India had spent $137 billion on crude oil imports in the financial year ending March 31, 2025. Whereas during the first ten months of the current financial year (April 2025 to January 2026), $100.4 billion was spent on the import of 206.3 million tonnes of crude oil.
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