Examine how India can diversify its energy import routes to mitigate risks arising from instability in West Asia.

The Strait of Hormuz carries about 20 million barrels a day — roughly a quarter of global seaborne oil trade — through a channel only 29 nautical miles wide [1]. Recurring West Asian conflict makes route diversification, not merely supplier diversification, central to India's energy security.

Nature of the risk

• Chokepoint concentration: with Asia absorbing the bulk of Hormuz-transiting crude, a single closure event transmits directly into India's import bill [1].
• Weaponisation of the passage: during the collapse of the June 2026 US–Iran understanding, its safe-passage clause became the flashpoint and the IRGC announced a temporary closure [5].
• Thin fallback capacity: bypass pipelines via Saudi Arabia's Red Sea route and the UAE's Fujairah line offer only 3.5–5.5 mb/d of spare capacity, untested at crisis volumes [1].
• Secondary effects follow through freight, war-risk insurance and tanker availability, not just crude prices.

Diversifying the routes

• Geographic re-sourcing: oil PSUs now lift crude from around 40 countries across the Americas, Africa and Eurasia; consequently about 70% of India's crude imports now arrive by routes outside Hormuz, against roughly 55% earlier [2].
• Alternative maritime gateways: Chabahar, on the Gulf of Oman, lies outside the Strait; the 10-year Shahid Beheshti terminal contract (May 2024) links it to the INSTC, offering a Hormuz-independent corridor to Eurasia [4].
• Long-haul contracting with Atlantic-basin and Russian suppliers spreads exposure across sea lanes rather than one passage.

Building resilience behind the routes

• Strategic Petroleum Reserves: 5.33 MMT at Visakhapatnam, Mangaluru and Padur, with a further 6.5 MMT approved at Chandikhol and Padur on PPP mode [3].
• Demand-side measures — ethanol blending, renewables and electric mobility — structurally shrink the exposed volume.

India's vulnerability is thus increasingly manageable rather than absolute. Sustained investment in non-Gulf sourcing, Chabahar–INSTC connectivity and deeper reserves, aligned with SDG-7, can convert a geographic chokepoint into a hedged, diversified supply architecture.