In March, the first full month after the US and Israel launched an attack on Iran, India’s crude oil imports declined 17.1% over March 2025, reflecting the disruption in the global energy supply chain caused by the conflict.
The decline in imports meant that despite a spike in global crude oil prices, India’s total crude oil import bill fell by around 5% on an annualised basis in March, according to the latest government data.
India’s crude oil imports bill fell from $12.3 billion in March 2025 to $11.7 billion in March 2025, a dip of 4.88%, according to provisional numbers released by oil ministry’s data keeper Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell. In terms of volume, they fell to 18.9 million metric tonnes (MMT) as compared to 22.8 MMT in the same month of 2025.The supply chain disruption was caused mainly by a closure of the key transportation route passing through the Strait of Hormuz. One-fifth of global energy supplies pass through this.
After the war broke out, international benchmark prices of crude surged by over 64% from $72.87 per barrel on February 27 to nearly $120 a barrel in intraday trades on March 9 and remained above $100 barrel.
India’s average monthly crude import price (also called Indian basket) in March spiked by 56.6% to $113.49 a barrel as against $72.47 a barrel in March 2025, according to the government data.
With an uneasy and fragile ceasefire in West Asia threatening to collapse, the situation looks fraught. Over the past week, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked people to be prudent in their consumption of both energy and foreign exchange. The rupee has weakened by 6.5 % to the dollar since January 1.
Cumulatively, India closed financial year 2025-26 with crude oil imports worth $123.10 billion or ₹10,88,904 crore. In dollar-terms, this is 10.27% less compared to $137.20 billion spent in 2024-25, and 6.17% less in the rupee-terms .This despite a year-on-year increase in volumes. In 2024-25, the country imported 243.2 MMT of crude oil, which rose to 245.4 MMT in 2025-26, an increase of 0.9%, data showed. Lower and stable oil prices helped India’s cause for much of the year.
India’s state owned oil companies have done well in the financial year, people familiar with the matter said.
“HPCL [Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd] has made handsome profit in the fourth quarter (January-March quarter of 2025-26),” a former government official and sector expert said. Two other large state-owned companies, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) are likely to do even better than HPCL, this person added. IOC is expected to declare its financial results on May 18 and BPCL on May 19.
State-run HPCL on Wednesday declared a 46% jump in net profit for Q4 of FY26 to ₹4,901.50 crore as compared to ₹3,355 crore in Q4 of FY25. In the full fiscal year (FY26), HPCL ’s net profit was ₹17,175 crore , a 133% jump as compared to ₹7,365 crore in FY25. The company also declared a final dividend of ₹19.25 per equity share having face value of ₹10 for FY26, which is in addition to the interim dividend of ₹5 per equity share.
Experts, however, cautioned about the financial performance in the current financial year as the sharp rise in crude prices from March could weigh on the first quarter (Q1 of FY27) performance due to the evolving geopolitical situation.
Oil minister Hardeep Puri said recently that Indian oil companies are together losing ₹1000 crore a day because they are yet to raise retail fuel prices.
