By G. Krishnakumar
New Delhi [India], June 29 (ANI): A refinery doesn’t care about geopolitics. It cares concerning the crude in its tanks, the slate it may well run, and whether or not the following cargo will berth on time. That operational reality turned India’s take a look at through the hundred days of the Hormuz disruption. When a chokepoint that usually carried greater than 40% of India’s crude imports, over 80% of LPG imports and greater than 55% of LNG imports immediately turned unreliable, the query inside each operations room was brutally sensible: would the molecules hold arriving, and would residents see the distinction on the pump, within the kitchen or on the CNG station? They didn’t. Not a single retail outlet ran dry. Household LPG, PNG and CNG provides had been protected all through. That is the true story of the disaster: resilience constructed quietly in calm years, spent with self-discipline in a tough one.
The first line of defence was sourcing breadth. An importing nation with two or three suppliers is a hostage to every of them; an importing nation with 41 is a negotiator. India had widened its crude provider base from 27 international locations in 2006-07 to 41 right now, and that breadth alone allowed non-Hormuz sourcing to rise from roughly 55% to about 70% as soon as the Strait was disrupted. Barrels had been changed by cargoes from Russia, the Atlantic basin, the Americas and West Africa–bought on phrases that solely years of prior relationships might make doable.
You can’t construct a provider base in a fortnight; you possibly can solely draw on the one you spent a decade assembling. The distinction with India’s Asian friends was instructive: China reduce crude imports by 45%, Southeast Asian refiners slashed throughput, and Japan and South Korea leaned closely on strategic reserves. India maintained refinery runs at full capability and ended the disruption with stock intact–a divergence that displays not March 2026 however the sourcing structure constructed patiently over the last decade earlier than.
The identical optionality utilized to LPG, the tightest commodity. With greater than 80% of LPG usually transiting Hormuz, cooking gasoline was the place a scarcity would have been felt first and resented most. The LPG Control Order of 8 March directed refineries to maximise yields, lifting home manufacturing from 35 TMT/day to 54 TMT/day–a turnaround doable solely in a system with actual working headroom. The 22 LPG import terminals now working, towards 11 in 2014, gave India various entry factors that didn’t exist a decade in the past. The family cylinder was protected all through. The value to an Ujjwala beneficiary was held at Rs 642 whereas the worldwide market convulsed, even because the import-linked value exceeded Rs 1,600 per cylinder.
Refining flexibility was the second structural asset. Indian refineries are constructed for selection, configured over successive improve cycles to course of a variety of grades. When a budget and acquainted Gulf barrels stopped arriving, the items modified their menu. Every PSU refiner maintained throughput at 100% and not using a single shutdown. Stocks of petrol, diesel and aviation turbine gasoline by no means fell beneath a 60-day cowl. Not one refinery requested a run-cut.
Natural gasoline held equally agency. PNG and CNG shoppers skilled zero disruption all through; complete provide recovered to 96% of pre-war ranges by June by way of alternate LNG sourcing and cross-ministry coordination. As a structural bonus, the PNG 2.0 drive tripled new every day family connections–each one completely decreasing dependence on imported LPG.
I wish to be candid about the price, as a result of a provide story with out its price ticket is propaganda. Keeping the pump value steady whereas Brent ran from about US$70 to roughly US$126 a barrel meant any individual absorbed the distinction. The oil advertising corporations carried losses of Rs 61,000 crore within the first quarter alone, on high of Rs 30,000 crore dedicated the prior yr to carry cooking-gas costs.
The authorities’s excise obligation reduce held the consumer-facing harm to that quantity moderately than passing it to family budgets–a deliberate option to take the shock onto the general public steadiness sheet, and the clearest expression of what a consumer-first power coverage means when examined.
India’s preparedness prolonged past crude procurement. Strategic petroleum reserves, elevated business inventories, versatile refinery configurations able to processing a number of crude grades, and sturdy transport preparations supplied further layers of resilience. Together, these measures enabled India to soak up non permanent disruptions with out affecting home gasoline availability.
There is a bent, when a disaster is navigated effectively, to imagine it was subsequently simple. Both conclusions are incorrect. The disruption was probably the most extreme the trendy power system has confronted, and the rationale it didn’t translate into queues and darkish forecourts is that resilience had been constructed upfront and operated with self-discipline. The query now’s whether or not this turns into an archived episode or the baseline for a structural improve. India holds solely 9.5 days of strategic crude reserves; business shares crammed the hole this time, however the subsequent disruption could not supply that window.
Expanding strategic petroleum reserves to Bikaner and Bina, establishing a ring-fenced Energy Security Fund, advancing the Oman-Gujarat deepwater pipeline to financing, operationalising the SCI-IOCL-BPCL-ONGC joint fleet of 62 owned vessels, and capping any single provide area at beneath 40% of imports would all materially strengthen the structure for no matter comes subsequent.
India’s expertise affords an necessary lesson for energy-importing nations: diversification shouldn’t be merely a procurement strategy–it is a strategic funding in nationwide power safety. By structurally breaking a decades-long reliance on the Strait of Hormuz and cultivating a diversified, world import portfolio, India navigated the 2026 power disaster successfully. The strategic pivot proved that fashionable power safety requires agility, sturdy long-term contracting, and the willingness to look far past geographic proximity.
Resilience is purchased within the calm years and spent within the arduous ones. The 41-country provider base, the configurable refineries, the 22 import terminals and the 20% ethanol mixing programme had been none of them constructed for this emergency. They had been constructed for resilience as a precept, and the emergency got here and proved the precept sound.
A rustic that had constructed 41 doorways didn’t panic when one was blocked. It used the others, stored its kitchens lit and its pumps moist, and absorbed the worst power disaster in fashionable historical past as a couple of weeks of headlines and no change in every day life. The 41 doorways held. The query is what number of extra can have been constructed by the point they’re wanted once more. (ANI)
Disclaimer: G. Krishnakumar is the ex-Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited. The views expressed on this article are his personal