India Must Rethink West Asia Energy Dependence After Biggest Shock in Decades: ONGC Chief
ONGC Chairman and CEO Arun Kumar Singh called for a fundamental rethink of India's energy strategy, warning that the West Asia conflict has exposed the vulnerabilities of over-reliance on a single region for oil, gas, and LPG supplies
Singh said India relied on West Asia for nearly half its crude oil imports, 30% of its gas, and 85–90% of its LPG — a concentration of supply that becomes a strategic liability in geopolitical crises
He called for India to "chase oil wherever it is in the country at any cost" and to aggressively expand Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) as insurance against disruption
ONGC announced a $20 billion deepwater exploration programme — "Samudra Manthan" — targeting offshore reserves to reduce import dependency
Singh warned that a fragmenting global order and rising geopolitical tensions are invalidating long-held assumptions about the stability and availability of energy from traditional suppliers
India's Energy Import Dependence and Structural Vulnerability
India is the world's third-largest oil consumer and third-largest importer of crude oil, importing approximately 87–88% of its crude oil needs (FY2025). The petroleum import bill was approximately $138 billion in FY2024. India's energy import basket is heavily concentrated in the Persian Gulf: Saudi Arabia, Iraq, UAE, and Kuwait collectively supply over 50% of India's crude. This geographic concentration creates systemic risk — any disruption to West Asian supply chains (through conflict, chokepoint closure, or sanctions) directly impacts India's inflation, current account deficit, and foreign exchange reserves.
ONGC chief's call for rethinking reflects precisely these structural vulnerabilities — the West Asia conflict is the most acute test India's energy security framework has faced in decades.
Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR): India's Buffer Mechanism
India's Strategic Petroleum Reserve was established under the Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited (ISPRL), a Special Purpose Vehicle under Oil Industry Development Board. India has three underground SPR facilities with a combined capacity of 5.33 million metric tonnes (MMT), equivalent to approximately 9.5 days of national consumption. As of early 2026, the SPR was approximately 64% full (3.37 MMT), reflecting a decision to partially drawdown reserves and sell them at a profit during the previous oil price spike, rather than maintain them purely as an emergency buffer.
The ONGC chief's call for SPR expansion directly addresses the current situation: at 64% capacity and ~9.5 days of cover, India's buffer is far below what an energy crisis of this scale requires.
ONGC's "Samudra Manthan" and India's Domestic Exploration Push
The $20 billion Samudra Manthan (literally "churning of the ocean" — a reference to the mythological churning of the cosmic ocean for nectar) programme is ONGC's largest deepwater exploration initiative, targeting reserves in the Krishna-Godavari Basin, Andaman Sea, and the Mumbai Offshore basin. India's domestic oil and gas production has been declining for over a decade — from about 37 million metric tonnes in FY2012 to approximately 29 MMT in FY2024 — making domestic exploration a strategic priority. The Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP), introduced in 2016, replaced the old revenue-sharing model (NELP) with a revenue-sharing model designed to attract more private and foreign investment in exploration.
Key Details
- ONGC: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, India's largest oil and gas producer; Navratna CPSE
- Domestic crude production: ~29 MMT (FY2024), declining trend since 2012 peak
- Key offshore blocks: KG-DWN-98/2 (Krishna-Godavari deepwater), Mumbai High (ageing), Bay of Bengal
- HELP (2016): replaced NELP; introduces Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) — companies can choose blocks instead of waiting for government bids
- India's renewable energy push (500 GW by 2030) addresses electricity but not transport fuel needs — oil remains critical medium-term
Samudra Manthan represents the supply-side response to the ONGC chief's own diagnosis — if India cannot secure external energy reliably, it must produce more domestically, especially from technically challenging deepwater reserves.
India's Energy Diversification Strategy: Beyond the Persian Gulf
India's energy diversification has accelerated since 2022, driven by Russian crude discounts (post-Ukraine war) and now the West Asia crisis. Russia has risen to become India's largest crude supplier by volume (~21% in FY2025), reversing years of negligible supply. The US, West Africa (Nigeria, Angola), and Latin America (Brazil) are also part of the diversification strategy. On the gas side, India has sought LNG from Qatar (long-term contracts), Australia, and the US (spot/short-term). The Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline and the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline remain stalled due to sanctions and geopolitical constraints.
The ONGC chief's call for diversification comes after the immediate diversification measures (Russian crude, rerouting) have shown both their value and their limits — a deeper structural rethink of energy supply policy is now unavoidable.
- India's crude import dependence: ~87–88% of total needs imported; ~50% through Strait of Hormuz
- West Asia share: ~50% crude, ~30% gas, ~85–90% LPG
- SPR capacity: 5.33 MMT (9.5 days cover); currently 64% full (3.37 MMT)
- Samudra Manthan: $20 billion ONGC deepwater exploration programme
- India's crude import bill: ~$138 billion (FY2024)
- Russia's share in India crude imports: rose from near-zero to ~21% (FY2025)
- India: third-largest global oil consumer; third-largest crude importer