New Delhi: Three days after the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran that have since triggered retaliatory attacks across the region on US bases and Gulf states including the UAE, the union minister for petroleum and natural gas Hardeep Singh Puri is yet to issue a statement on the ramifications for India’s energy security.Questions remain about the impact of the hostilities on India’s fuel and energy sector following the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that has led to the effective closure of the Strait Of Hormuz. US President Donald Trump has already issued an Executive Order saying India will be monitored by a committee consisting of US ministers, to ensure it does not trade with Russia. India had been benefitting from cheap Russian oil ever since the attack on Ukraine in February 2022 pushed up energy prices. The Wire has reported that data from analytics firm Kpler shows that India’s Russian crude imports have, however, already been falling. Purchases dropped to roughly 1.1 million barrels per day during the first three weeks of January, down from an average of 1.21 million barrels daily the previous month and more than two million barrels per day at their peak in mid-2025. Therefore, India is left with limited choices as the situation in West Asia gets more tense.Puri, who has been at the centre of a storm due to his many mentions in email exchanges with convicted sex offender and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, is yet to issue a statement on the impact of the hostilities in West Asia on India’s energy security. Puri’s X profile shows the many birthday wishes he has issued in the last three days while hostilities have intensified. On March 1, Puri issued birthday wishes to his cabinet colleague Virendra Kumar, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and Manipur chief minister Khemchand Yumnam. On February 26 Puri posted about using CBG (compressed biogas) as clean fuel and on February 25, re-posted various updates from Modi’s visit to Israel.Puri’s silence is crucial as the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has raised several questions about India’s energy supply. The Kpler report, using vessel tracking data, shows that approximately 2.5 — 2.7 Mbd of India’s crude imports transit via the Strait of Hormuz. The imports are largely sourced from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait. The report said that over the past two to three months, India’s dependence on West Asian oil has increased as refiners have pivoted away from Russian oil. As a result, the relative weight of Gulf-origin crude in India’s import basket has risen, increasing short-term sensitivity to any disruption in Hormuz transit, the report added.Hormuz accounts for approximately one-fifth of the global crude oil flow. The key waterway. lying between Oman and Iran, connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimated that 82% of crude and other fuel shipments that went through the strait went to Asia, of which China, India, Japan and South Korea were the top destinations.Energy prices have already surged in the wake of the US-Israel attacks on Iran and its retaliatory strikes on Gulf neighbours. Oil prices soared as much as 13% on Monday in Asia. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was recently up 5.2% at $76.21, the Financial Times has reported. Prices had earlier hit $82.37 a barrel, the highest in more than a year. Futures tracking the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 indicated the indices would drop 0.6% when Wall Street reopens on Monday. The price of gold jumped 1.3%.In FY 25, about 50% of India’s crude oil and 54% of LNG imports were routed through the Strait of Hormuz, the Business Standard has reported. The report said that if India’s Gulf supplies are disrupted and Russian exports continue, then India can continue to receive supplies as Russian ports do not depend on Hormuz. However, questions remain over India’s Russian oil purchases in the aftermath of US President Donald Trump’s retaliatory tariffs. Last month, Puri informed the Rajya Sabha while answering a supplementary question during the Question Hour that India’s strategic petroleum reserve can last 74 days to meet demands arising out of any global turbulence.“The strategic petroleum reserve is designed to ensure that in case of total global turbulence, we must have enough stock left to meet our needs. The IEA stipulates that there should be about 90 days of holding as a strategic petroleum reserve,” the minister said.He said that India calculates reserves not only in caverns but also in our refineries. “Our reserves in the caverns are in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka and we are hoping to get started in Odisha soon,” said Puri.