Ahmedabad: According to data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell, India’s crude oil imports increased by 2.9% to $ 124.7 billion in the first eleven months of FY 2025, which was $ 121.2 billion in the same period of FY 2024. The country imported 219.9 million tonnes of crude oil between April and February, which is 3% higher than 213.4 million tonnes in the same period last year.
In February alone, the import bill of crude oil rose by about 3% to $ 10.6 billion, while the import volume increased by 5% to 19.1 million tonnes as compared to February 2024.
Amid increasing demand, India’s dependence on crude oil imports increased to 88.2% during the April-February of the current financial year, which was 87.7% in the same period of FY 24. In early FY 2025, the ICRA estimated that India’s pure crude oil import bill would increase from $ 96.1 billion to $ 2024 to $ 101–104 billion due to reduced discounts on Russian crude oil and increased dependence on imports.
Many Indian oil and gas companies are looking at getting more crude oil and LNG from the US. America is one of the top five countries supplying crude oil to this country. Analysts and industry people hop that crude oil and gas imports from the US will go ahead, as the two countries want to strengthen energy trade and relations after a recent meeting between Prime Minister Modi and US President Donald Trump.
According to analysts, the increasing availability of American crude oil may help other global suppliers, including Russia, to remain value-practical in the Indian market. In addition, the Government of India aims to increase the share of natural gas in energy mixture from 6% to 15% by 2030, so more imports of American gas are being seen as a positive growth. The country’s upstream companies produced 26.2 million tonnes of oil during April-February, while it was 26.9 million tonnes in the same period of FY 2024.
