New Delhi, July 25, 2026 (Agencies) — Indian refiners are turning to crude supplies from Angola in Africa and Venezuela in South America as term contracts from the Middle East remain trapped and unable to reach India amid escalating regional conflict.
India, the world’s third-largest crude oil importer, is testing new crude grades to offset the disruption. Senior refinery executives told Economic Times that diversification outside the Strait of Hormuz has become essential.
“We diversified our crude sourcing outside of the Strait of Hormuz, exploring multiple geographies including two new crude grades from Venezuela and Angola,” said Vetsa Ramakrishna Gupta, finance director at Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL).
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) reported that it barely received any term supplies from the Middle East in the first quarter. “This time in the first quarter, we hardly got anything from our term contracts because a lot of the term contracts were sitting on the other side of Strait of Hormuz,” HPCL managing director Vikas Kaushal explained, adding that decisions were made based on availability rather than optimization.
Despite the disruption, India’s crude imports from Russia remained near record-high levels in July, even after the expiration of the U.S. waiver last month. However, state refiners including Indian Oil Corp and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) suspended crude loadings from Iraq this week, citing heightened hostilities in the Middle East and the abrupt halt to traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
Indian Oil abandoned plans to load the supertanker Lila Jamnagar, concluding that sending a fully laden 2-million-barrel vessel through Hormuz was too risky. MRPL also halted Iraqi liftings as regional security deteriorated further.
The shift underscores India’s urgent need to diversify energy sources, as instability in the Middle East continues to threaten the country’s crude supply chain.