The Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday said that he does not expect any disruption in supply lines for crude oil and gas from the Middle East, even as the confrontation between Israel and Hamas has escalated.
“I don’t expect the supply lines to be disrupted so I am not worried. The Prime Minister is very sensitive to price affecting the common man, price affecting the supply at the point of consumption for all forms of energy. We are monitoring it very carefully. We are reasonably confident that we can navigate trough this. So far, there has been no disruption to supply lines and I am also reasonably confident that any future development we can navigate. So, we have no issue on that,” Puri told presspersons. .
The Middle East accounts for more than one-third of India’s crude oil imports.
On October 7, Hamas launched an armed attack onIsrael, following which the latter declared a war on the Palestenian militant group. .
War fallout
The conflict led to fresh volatility in crude oil prices, which had softened last week due to fears of global recession, rising interest rates and lower consumer spending.
Global crude oil prices clawed back some of their losses from last week on Monday after the attack on Israel. It also reflected in prices at the two major crude oil benchmarks, which appreciated around 4 per cent. Brent Crude had hit $88.15 a barrel, while WTI Crude rose to $86.38. On Tuesday afternoon, Brent fell slightly to $88.13 a barrel, whereas WTI stood at $86.35. On October 6, Brent closed at $83.44 a barrel, its biggest weekly decline since March 2023.
On Thursday evening, Brent was trading at $87.36 a barrel, while WTI was at $84.82.