India is preoccupied with analysing the US sanctions, which may cut off India's access to discounted Russian crude and force it to buy at market prices.
An Indian crew member of a Comoros-flagged oil tanker that capsized off the Oman coast has died, officials said on Thursday.
Somali pirates have released a Greek-owned oil tanker with 26 crew members, including 11 Indians, after holding them captive for ten months, the vessel's operating company said on Tuesday.
Incidents in the maritime sector involving Indian seafarers, and foreign vessels in Indian waters rose by 21.6 per cent in 2024 to 186, highlighting the need to strengthen safety frameworks.
Indian imports of Russian crude oil may stabilise or even decline in 2024 from record 2023 levels amid shrinking discounts, lower output, and a rebound in West Asian supplies, according to the ship-tracking data and industry executives. This may impact the billions of dollars in annual savings that India made last year. Imports of Russian oil jumped by a record 140 per cent in calendar 2023 to 1.79 million barrels a day (b/d) from 740,400 b/d in 2022, when Russia marched into Ukraine in February, and from just 102,000 b/d in 2021, according to the data from Paris-based market intelligence agency Kpler.
The wide-ranging sanctions imposed by the US on the Russian oil sector have started to dent near-term oil flows to India with state-owned Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) saying not enough cargoes are available for March.
Indian refiners are likely to import 2-2.2 million barrels per day of Russian crude oil in June - the highest in the last two years and more than the total volumes bought from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait, preliminary data by global trade analytics firm Kpler showed.
Tips to avoid the heat, crowds, and travel risks, including incidents like the tragic Mufrihat accident that killed 45 Indian pilgrims.
Navy officials on Monday said that the swift response by the Indian Navy's mission deployed warship INS Sumitra ensured the safe release of the hijacked vessel and its crew.
The 2025 US National Security Strategy marks a major pullback, with America turning backward and effectively allowing China greater dominance in Asia. while long-time partners like India are left to face an increasingly unstable global order largely on their own, observes Rajeev Srinivasan.
US strikes on Iran's three main nuclear facilities have once again raised concerns that Tehran might shut down the Strait of Hormuz - one of the world's most critical chokepoints, through which a fifth of global oil and gas supply flows.
Petrol pumps in Mumbai, Nagpur and other parts of the state witnessed long queues on Tuesday as people came to fill up their vehicle tanks fearing shortage of fuel amid the protest by truck drivers.
The Indian government has dismissed claims of a suicide attack on an Army brigade in Jammu and Kashmir and a drone attack in Punjab as "fake news." The Press Information Bureau's Fact Check Unit found the claims to be false and attributed the spread of disinformation to coordinated efforts by certain social media handles and mainstream media in Pakistan. The government urged citizens to rely on verified sources and refrain from sharing unverified content.
'There are times when India should stand up without hesitation and voice its indignation over the US' pressure tactic. This is one such moment,' asserts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
An Indian sailor was feared dead while 22 others were rescued from a burning but empty Indian-owned oil tanker off the Malaysian coast on Monday.
A resurgence in Saudi Arabian supplies of crude oil to India coupled with an attack on an Iraqi tanker in August carrying crude to Europe may result in improved bargaining power for India with West Asian and Russian suppliers for winter supplies. Shipments of Saudi oil rebounded in September from August, surging to the highest since March while Russian oil shipments rose marginally as Saudi Arabia tried to claw back market share in Asia, according to industry sources and ship tracking data.
Oil tanker MT Heroic Idun and its 26 crew members, including 16 Indians, were in detention since August last year.
India's crude oil imports from Russia fell for a second straight month in January to its lowest in 12 months but the nation's insatiable appetite for Russian crude remains for the long term, according to data from energy cargo tracker and industry officials. Russia supplied 1.2 million barrels per day of crude oil to India in January, down from 1.32 million barrels in December and 1.62 million barrels in November 2023, according to data from energy cargo tracker Vortexa. Russia however continues to remain India's top oil supplier, accounting for a little less than a quarter of 4.91 million barrels a day of oil that the world's third largest energy consumer imported in January.
State-owned Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL), which operates India's strategic crude oil storage, will make awards by December to lease around 1 million tons of crude oil storage space (7.3 million barrels) at two of the country's three existing Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPRs), around a fifth of the total SPR capacity. This will enable the refilling of crude caverns even as escalating hostilities in the Gulf threaten disruptions in crude supplies, two industry sources said.
An ecological disaster is in the making in the Sunderbans, the world's largest mangrove forest spanning across the Indo-Bangla border, after an oil tanker collided with an empty cargo vessel. The incident spilled nearly 350 tonnes of oil into the Sela river, threatening the survival of multiple species of flora and fauna.
A French Navy has rescued eleven Indian sailors from suspected pirates at the mouth of the Gulf of Aden. According to a media release of the Embassy of France in New Delhi, the rescue operation took place on January 18 off the coast of Oman.
'Given that the situation is quickly escalating, such attacks will affect the flow of crude in the short term from West Asia' Subhayan Chakraborty and Dhruvaksh Saha report.
Russian oil supplies to India will continue to flow unhindered and suppliers will come up with ways to sidestep secondary sanctions, a Russian official told Business Standard.
Tightening Russian gas supplies to Europe has led to scramble for tankers before winter sets in.
The oil industry experienced three upheavals between 1973 and 1991, which seem to be etched in the memory of the industry's decision makers. Naturally, at the sign of a new crisis, the decision makers like to dip into those tumultuous decades to find ways to deal with the new shock, in addition, of course, to expert reports and forecasts. So, the industry bigwigs turned the pages of history to get a peek into the future of oil price movements after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Israel attacked Gaza in 2023, Iran-linked Houthi rebels pounded tankers crossing the Red Sea in support of Palestine the same year, and Iran rained missiles on Israel in 2024.
The latest flashpoint in West Asia has derailed India's preliminary plans to resume crude oil imports from Iran, officials said. In January, officials of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas had told Business Standard that the government had been studying proposals for the same, given that India was trying to expand sources of imports. "We are always monitoring the situation when it comes to crude flows.
What is more surprising is that a surge in Russian oil supplies has come after the G7 imposed stringent sanctions on Moscow.
Using rocket launchers and submachine guns, suspected Somali pirates abducted 17 Indian and five Italian sailors after hijacking a large Italian-flagged oil tanker in the Indian Ocean.
The Indian Navy rescued an Iranian-flagged fishing vessel with 19 Pakistani crew members and a Sri Lankan trawler in two swift operations after armed pirates hijacked the boats in the Arabian Sea amid deteriorating security situation arising out of Iran-backed Houthi rebels targeting various cargo ships in the region.
Saturday's drone attack on MV Chem Pluto came amid increasing concerns over various commercial vessels being targeted reportedly by Iran-backed Houthi militants in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden amid the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Indian Navy on Wednesday said its ships and aircraft remain 'mission deployed' for maintaining enhanced surveillance and undertaking maritime security operations.
Several petrol pumps in Kolkata and south Bengal went dry with the strike by oil tankers entering the third day today as industry officials sought the intervention of the state government to end the impasse.
Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi on Saturday called his Indian counterpart S M Krishna over the killing of two Indian fishermen by the guards of an Italian oil tanker off Kollam coast in Kerala. Krishna told Terzi that the captain the Italian oil tanker must cooperate with Indian law enforcers. Krishna said the law should be allowed to take its own course in connection with the incident.
An oil tanker with 21 Indian crew members on board was hijacked on Saturday off the coast of Oman, Directorate General of Shipping said in Mumbai.
India on Thursday said it is closely watching the unfolding situation in the Red Sea, amid growing global concerns over Houthi militants stepping up attacks on several commercial ships in the region.
Most of India's oil supplies are expected to stay safe because of the country's good relations with both Russia and Iran. That would take care of over a third of India's supplies.
All 23 Indian sailors aboard an oil tanker were safe on Wednesday after the Nigerian navy rescued their vessel that was hijacked briefly by pirates off the coast of southern Nigeria.
The government on Monday informed that the European Union ban on single hull oil tankers of over 23 years of age would not impact privatisation-bound Shipping Corporation of India.\n\n\n\n
The Indian Navy's 'mission deployed' guided missile destroyer INS Visakhapatnam responded to the attack within an hour of receiving a distress call from the vessel Genco Picardy, they said.
In the third such attack in over two weeks in the Gulf of Guinea, the Singapore-owned vessel, MT Abu Dhabi Star, was taken over by pirates on Tuesday night when it was sailing towards the open sea.
