India plans to make bigger oil exploration after struggle shortages within the Heart East

Petroleum and Herbal Gasoline Minister Hardeep Singh Puri stated India plans to open about 250,000 sq. kilometers of unexplored spaces for bidding. (EPA Photographs Picture) NEW DELHI: Hit by way of the largest power provide surprise in many years throughout the Heart East struggle, import-dependent India is increasing home crude oil exploration, its oil minister says.

India, the sector’s third-largest oil importer and second-largest purchaser of liquefied petroleum fuel, confronted main disruptions because of restrictions within the Strait of Hormuz throughout the US-Iran struggle.

With a brief settlement between america and Iran to droop hostilities, oil and fuel shipments are flowing once more in the course of the Gulf waterway, and restrictions and value will increase in India are easing.

However Petroleum and Herbal Gasoline Minister Hardeep Singh Puri stated the power disaster equipped recent impetus to the growth of India’s home provides.

“We are currently in the process… of tendering about 250,000 square kilometers (96,500 square miles) of unexplored area,” Puri advised AFP.

India is a modest manufacturer in international phrases.

Nationwide crude oil manufacturing in 2025-2026 was once 25.98 million metric heaps, in line with the Ministry of Petroleum.

That covers most effective 10% of India’s crude oil wishes, identical to about 522,000 barrels in keeping with day (bpd), a determine neatly underneath its top manufacturing of simply over 900,000 bpd in 2011.

India survived the power disaster by way of increasing its crude oil providers from 27 to 41 international locations, together with Iran, Venezuela and larger purchases from Russia and several other African international locations.

New Delhi has up to now been criticized by way of each america and Europe for its acquire of Russian oil, with critics arguing that it financed Moscow’s struggle in opposition to kyiv.

However Puri stated India had a “pragmatic approach” that put its power wishes forward of “ideological considerations.”

‘Ocean of power alternatives’

The rustic’s home crude oil manufacturing is focused within the west – in its offshore fields in Mumbai, Rajasthan and Gujarat – in addition to within the northeastern state of Assam.

However Puri has hailed what he calls an “ocean of energy opportunities” off India’s Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, an 800-kilometre-long chain of environmentally delicate islands within the seas bordering Thailand and Indonesia.

The huge Andaman basin is geologically very similar to the hydrocarbon-bearing basins of Southeast Asia.

In June, Puri posted a video on social media of fuel flaring in an exploratory neatly drilled within the Andaman Sea by way of state-owned Oil India.

“A large number of deep and ultra-deepwater exploration wells are planned in our marine basins to fully exploit our hydrocarbon reserves,” Puri stated when he launched the video.

New Delhi is operating with “deepwater exploration experts” together with Petrobras, TotalEnergies, BP, Shell and ExxonMobil, he stated.

In the similar Andaman Sea, India is getting ready a $9 billion challenge at the Nice Nicobar Island to construct a megaport, airport and town, making a strategic base on what’s, for now, a far off island lined in pristine forests and residential to probably the most remoted peoples on Earth.

“Exceptionally bullish”

The frenzy predates the Heart East struggle.

Hindu nationalist High Minister Narendra Modi introduced the “Samudra Manthan” challenge throughout a speech at the instance of Independence Day in August 2025.

The title refers to a central match in Hindu mythology, which means “the stirring of the ocean.”

“We want to work in mission mode to find oil and gas reserves under the sea and hence India is going to start the National Deep Sea Exploration Mission,” Modi stated on the time.

However India’s try to scale back dependence faces demanding situations.

Home call for on this planet’s maximum populous country of one.4 billion other folks is rising abruptly, at the same time as the federal government guarantees to succeed in carbon neutrality by way of 2070.

India may be expanding investments in renewable power, nuclear energy and mixing fuel with ethanol.

“India’s energy consumption today is growing at three times the rate of the rest of the world,” Puri stated.

“It has jumped from five million barrels per day in 2021 to around 5.6 million barrels today and would soon reach six million barrels per day, thanks to strong economic and per capita income growth.”

Puri stated he was once “exceptionally optimistic” for the long run.

“I am happy with the knowledge that our E&P (exploration and production) is increasing and believe me, it will increase very rapidly,” Puri stated.

He famous that it was once a “time- and capital-intensive” procedure however stated he had top hopes.

“We are investing fiscal resources largely in oil and gas exploration, with a program of 10 billion dollars,” he added.

“With it we enter a million kilometers of unexplored terrain.”