As the third-largest consumer of crude oil, India will “play the market card” to secure affordable and predictable supply from “wherever it is available” to ensure energy security for its citizens, Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri today said.
The ramp-up in India’s import of discounted Russian oil after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine almost a year ago has irked much of the West. However, Puri has time and again defended the purchases, saying that the government’s primary moral responsibility is to provide affordable energy to the Indian consumer.
Russia, which used to be a marginal player in India’s oil import basket, is now its top supplier of crude,
