The political turmoil in Libya has had no direct impact on India's crude oil imports.
Mr S. Jaipal Reddy, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, said “as India imports very little crude oil from Libya, there has been no direct impact of the situation in Libya on India's crude oil imports.”
He told Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that during 2010-11, India imported 1.094 million tonnes of crude from Libya, which was only 0.667 per cent of the total crude imports during the said year.
During 2011-12, only Bharat Petroleum Corporation had a term contract of 0.50 million tonnes with Libya's national oil company. “The said quantity could not be lifted due to the turmoil in Libya but the shortfall has been made up through alternate sources,” he said.
In order to reduce its dependence on any particular region of the world, India has been consciously trying to diversify its sources of crude oil imports, Mr Reddy said. During 2010-11, the country imported crude oil from more than 30 countries spread across different continents.
According to data available in 2010-11, Indian refiners imported 163.594 million tonnes, with Saudi Arabia being the main supplier. In April-October 2011-12 refiners imported 96.808 million tonnes of crude oil.