India’s Energy Security: Challenges and the Path to Sovereignty
Context:
- Recently, Russia has become India’s single largest supplier of crude oil, accounting for roughly 35%-40% of total imports in 2024-25, up sharply from barely 2% before the Ukraine war.
- While discounted Russian barrels have offered temporary relief, the heavy dependence on a single supplier highlights India’s strategic energy vulnerability.
Key Issues in India’s Energy Security
- Heavy crude oil imports: India imports over 85% of its crude oil and more than 50% of its natural gas, making it highly exposed to global price shocks.
- Reliance on Russia: Discounted barrels have reduced the import bill temporarily, but overdependence on one geopolitical partner increases strategic risk.
- Forex outflow and macroeconomic impact: In FY2023-24, India’s merchandise imports were $677 billion, with crude oil and natural gas alone accounting for $170 billion (over 25%). This pressures the rupee, inflates the trade deficit, and affects macroeconomic stability.
- Geopolitical flashpoints: Tensions in Israel-Iran (June 2025) nearly escalated into conflict, threatening 20 million barrels/day of global oil flows. Brent crude could have surpassed $103/barrel, illustrating the fragility of global energy supply chains.
Defining Moments in Global Energy Security
- 1973 Oil Crisis: Arab oil embargo quadrupled crude prices, exposing overdependence on OPEC. Led to strategic reserves, efficiency mandates, and diversified sourcing.
- Fukushima Nuclear Disaster (2011): Tsunami-induced meltdown in Japan shook confidence in nuclear energy; subsequent reliance on coal and gas raised emissions. Nuclear energy is now regaining attention.
- Texas Freeze (2021): Extreme cold froze gas pipelines and wind turbines, showing limits of cost-focused systems and emphasizing resilient, diversified infrastructure.
- Russia-Ukraine War (2022): Europe’s reliance on Russia for 40% of gas ended abruptly. LNG prices spiked, coal revival occurred, and the lesson was clear: single-source energy is not sovereign.
- Iberian Peninsula Blackout (2025): Spain and Portugal’s grid collapse due to over-reliance on intermittent renewables without dispatchable backup highlighted the need for balanced energy mixes.
Global Energy Situation
- Fossil fuel dominance: Over 80% of global primary energy is from fossil fuels.
- Hydrocarbon dependence: More than 90% of transportation relies on hydrocarbons.
- Renewables under 10%: Solar and wind, though growing, still form a minor share of global energy.
- Investment decline: Reduced exploration investments have created a structurally tight supply, vulnerable to even minor disruptions.
What India Should Do: Pillars of Energy Sovereignty
India must adopt a sovereign energy doctrine built on domestic capacity, technology diversity, and resilience. The strategy rests on five key pillars:
- Coal Gasification:
- Over 150 billion tonnes of coal reserves, mostly untapped due to high ash content.
- Gasification and carbon capture can convert coal into syngas, methanol, hydrogen, and fertilizers.
- Innovation is needed to overcome the ash barrier.
- Biofuels:
- Ethanol blending has reduced crude imports and transferred ₹92,000 crore to farmers.
- E20 program expected to further boost rural incomes.
- SATAT initiative promotes compressed biogas (CBG) plants, producing clean fuel and bio-manure rich in 20%-25% organic carbon, improving degraded soils and water/fertilizer retention.
- Nuclear Energy:
- Current capacity stagnant at 8.8 GW.
- Revive thorium roadmap, secure uranium partnerships, and localize Small Modular Reactors (SMRs).
- Provides dispatchable backbone energy in a renewable-heavy grid.
- Green Hydrogen:
- Target of 5 million metric tonnes by 2030 requires local electrolyser manufacturing, catalysts, and storage systems.
- Focus is on sovereign hydrogen, reducing import dependence.
- Pumped Hydro Storage:
- Proven and durable technology for grid balancing.
- Complements renewable energy and provides inertia missing in wind/solar-heavy grids.
- India’s topography supports future-ready storage infrastructure.
Conclusion
- India must pursue energy realism as the foundation of resilience and sovereignty, not merely as a fallback.
- Its strategy must blend ambition with pragmatism, leveraging the five pillars—coal gasification, biofuels, nuclear, green hydrogen, and pumped hydro storage—to create a sovereign, resilient, and sustainable energy future.
Source: The Hindu
