Amid global oil supply crunch, India set to receive up to 12 million barrels of Venezuelan crude in April

India imports oil from over 41 countries, with the sourcing slate having expanded considerably over the past few years. This has helped reduce dependence on West Asian crude, which is why the crude oil and petrol and diesel stocks in the country have been adequate so far.

“The development comes at a moment when Indian refiners are actively diversifying their crude slate, particularly in response to uncertainties surrounding the Strait of Hormuz. However, April-arriving cargoes were likely secured well before the recent disruptions, underscoring a longer-term strategic shift rather than a purely reactive move. This trend highlights the growing importance of proactive diversification in global energy markets. Securing an alternative supply in advance is increasingly seen as a competitive advantage,” said Sumit Ritolia, manager, modelling & Refining at Kpler.

With the US capturing Venezuela’s then president Nicolás Maduro early January, Trump had said that Washington would take control of Caracas’s oil sector. After that, global commodity traders Vitol and Trafigura were authorised by Washington to sell Venezuelan oil globally, which had been under US sanctions.

“More importantly, heavier Venezuelan barrels tend to yield higher proportions of distillates, particularly middle distillates such as diesel and jet fuel. This is significant in the current environment, where distillate markets remain structurally tight. As a result, these imports not only diversify sourcing but also strengthen India’s ability to sustain strong distillate output,” Ritolia added.

India — specifically private sector refining giant Reliance Industries (RIL) — was a regular buyer of Venezuelan crude prior to the imposition of US sanctions on Caracas in 2019. Following the sanctions, oil imports from Venezuela stopped within a few months. As per India’s official trade data, Caracas was New Delhi’s fifth-largest supplier of oil in 2019, providing close to 16 million tonnes, or about 117 million barrels, of crude to Indian refiners. The bilateral trade between India and Venezuela was $6.40 billion in 2019-20, of which Indian imports—primarily crude oil—were worth $6.06 billion.

Then in October 2023, the US eased sanctions on Venezuela’s petroleum sector, authorising oil exports without limitation for six months. This led to RIL and a few other Indian refiners restarting oil imports from Venezuela. But imports then stopped as the sanction waiver was not extended by Washington after its understanding with Caracas on the conduct of free and fair presidential elections in Venezuela broke down. A few months later, RIL was able to restart Venezuelan oil imports after obtaining a sanctions waiver from the US. But in the summer of 2025, the company halted oil imports from Venezuela after the Trump administration threatened higher tariffs on countries buying Venezuelan crude.

In India, RIL and Nayara Energy have been the biggest processors of heavy crudes, the kind which Venezuela produces. Limited heavy crude volumes are also processed occasionally by a few public sector refineries like Indian Oil’s Paradip refinery and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals unit in Mangaluru. HPCL-Mittal Energy also processes heavy crudes from time to time, and so do a few other Indian refineries.

In January, Kpler had said that planned investments aimed at increasing refinery complexity—such as upgrades at HPCL’s Visakhapatnam and a few other refineries—could expand India’s ability to process Venezuelan heavy crudes, gradually broadening system-wide intake capacity. Till then, any Venezuelan supply coming to India would largely support only a few Indian refineries, “constraining aggregate intake potential despite improved availability”.