Context: Venezuelan crude accounted for about 0.3% of India’s total oil import in the current financial year up to November; since 2019, India has been cutting its imports from Venezuela after U.S. sanctions.
- The United States attack on Venezuela is unlikely to have any direct impact on India’s energy security, an analysis of the latest data shows.
- Numbers from the Commerce and Industry Ministry show that India imported $255.3 million worth of oil from Venezuela in the current financial year up to November 2025, about 0.3% of its total oil import during this period.
- In 2013, India had imported as much as $13 billion worth of Venezuelan oil. Since 2019, India has been cutting its oil imports and commercial engagements with Venezuela in response to U.S. sanctions and threats of secondary sanctions.
- “Given the low trade volumes, existing sanctions constraints, and the large geographical distance, the current developments in Venezuela are not expected to have any meaningful impact on India’s economy or energy security,”.
OPEC member
- Venezuela is a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), a group of countries that largely dominates the global oil market. However, Venezuela currently produces a relatively small amount of crude oil compared with the other oil-producing nations.
- According to OPEC data, Venezuela accounts for about 3.5% of the OPEC’s total oil exports, and about 1% of global oil supplies.
Heavy oil
- This relatively low supply is due to the U.S. sanctions on Venezuela and the heavy nature of Venezuelan oil, which requires special refineries that most countries do not have. Most of Venezuela’s oil supply goes to China.
- Following the U.S. actions in Venezuela over the weekend, Mr. Trump announced that the U.S. would take over Venezuela’s oil supply. “We are going to rebuild the oil infrastructure, which will cost billions of dollars, it will be paid for by the oil companies directly,” Mr. Trump said in his address following the attack.
Source: The Hindu