Indian minister fires back at Russian oil trade critics
India’s energy cooperation with Russia remains crucial for the world’s most populous nation, despite criticism from the West, New Delhi’s minister of petroleum and natural gas, Hardeep Singh Puri, has told RT. He emphasized that engagement between the two countries, which spans crude oil imports to hydrogen and nuclear power, serves India’s national interests.
Speaking to renowned Indian actor Anupam Kher for his RT show ‘Let’s Talk Bharat,’ Puri highlighted that cooperation with Russia is vital for India’s economic targets and its goal of energy self-sufficiency by 2047.
Puri, a former diplomat, said that New Delhi’s increased Russian oil purchases after the Ukraine conflict began in 2022 helped avoid a global economic crisis, arguing that without Russian oil traded on the market, prices could have skyrocketed to $250-$300 per barrel.
Puri also addressed misconceptions about buying Russian oil, pointing out that Western sanctions exempt pipeline deliveries to Hungary and China, as well as sales from Sakhalin to Japan and the Far East. “So, whom are these [sanctions] intended against?” Puri questioned.
He argued that India will continue purchasing crude from whoever offers the most competitive prices, with Russian imports jumping from 0.2% as of February 2022 to nearly 40% of India’s total imports at the moment.
Since the Ukraine conflict escalated, many Indian officials, including Puri, have stressed that India’s growing energy consumption – three times the global average – requires pragmatic responses to global challenges. In a viral CNN interview, Puri countered questions about a “moral conflict” over buying Russian oil, blasting such perspective and asserting that the government rather has a “moral duty” to its consumers.
Speaking about India’s ambition of developing a $25 trillion economy (from the current $4 trillion) by 2047, Puri said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of the country’s future “has very bold and a very ambitious blueprint.”
According to the official, energy is vital for achieving this goal, and energy consumption in the country has been surging. While it currently stands at around 5.3 million barrels of crude oil a day, in the next few years it will increase to over 6 million barrels per day. “But in the next two decades, next 20 years, 25% of the increase in global demand is going to come from India,” the minister emphasized.
While India invests in crude exploration and production, biofuels (targeting 20% ethanol blending in petrol by 2026), and green hydrogen, fossil fuels will remain key at least for the next two decades, Puri predicted.
