India’s current strategic petroleum reserves are equivalent to about 9-10 days of the country’s net crude imports, much lower than other major import-dependent countries, according to a new report released on Wednesday.

The report released by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) said that other countries like Japan and South Korea which are heavily dependent on crude oil imports have enough reserves for more than 200 days.

Report, ‘How secure is India’s energy future? Assessing access, reliability and affordability, it also noted that more than 85 per cent of India’s crude oil imports come from only six countries, including Russia and key West Asian suppliers, thereby limiting resilience to supply shocks.

“Disruptions in crude oil, LNG, LPG, coal, or major shipping routes could immediately impact cooking costs, transportation fuel prices, fertilizer subsidies, industrial competitiveness, and inflation,” said Hemant Mallya, fellow at CEEW. For gas, India imports about half its supply in the form of LNG, but has no dedicated strategic gas storage facilities, leaving fertilizer plants and city gas networks exposed, the report said.

Domestically, declining coal quality and rising production costs indicate lower cost advantages for coal power compared to firm renewables, the report said.

It argued that clean energy could reduce India’s exposure to continuously imported fossil fuels.

However, the report notes that clean energy could create a different kind of strategic dependency: on critical minerals, technologies and industrial inputs.

According to the report, this dependence must be managed through domestic manufacturing, supply-chain diversification, recycling and strategic international partnerships.

Mallya said, “The next phase of India’s energy security must move beyond securitizing fossil fuels to a clear transition plan: optimizing gas system use, avoiding further refinery expansion, accelerating viable EV adoption, electrifying industry, reconfiguring refineries for lower gasoline demand and building resilient green technology supply chains.