Indian minister of petroleum and natural gas Hardeep Singh Puri
India defiant over Russian crude
Oil minister pushes back against criticism of his country’s approach to Russia
“We will buy [oil] from Russia; we will buy from wherever,” Hardeep Singh Puri, Indian minister of petroleum and natural gas, declared during a televised interview at the Gastech conference in Milan. The minister emphasised his “moral duty to my consumer” and stated his country has no conflict with Russia. Refusing to be drawn on the morality of continuing to purchase Russian crude, Puri stated that “it is a question of energy” and that he has a “democratic duty... what we have to do domestically, is insulate our own population" against inflationary pressures and the "interlinked crises of fuel, food and fertiliser” availability. India will therefore consider the G7 proposals to cap Russian
Also in this section
17 February 2026
The 25th WPC Energy Congress, taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 26–30 April 2026, will bring together leaders from the political, industrial, financial and technology sectors under the unifying theme “Pathways to an Energy Future for All”
17 February 2026
Siemens Energy has been active in the Kingdom for nearly a century, evolving over that time from a project-based foreign supplier to a locally operating multi-national company with its own domestic supply chain and workforce
17 February 2026
Eni’s chief operating officer for global natural resources, Guido Brusco, takes stock of the company’s key achievements over the past year, and what differentiates its strategy from those of its peers in the LNG sector and beyond
16 February 2026
As the third wave of global LNG arrives, Wood Mackenzie’s director for Europe gas and LNG, Tom Marzec-Manser, discusses with Petroleum Economist the outlook for Europe’s gas market in 2026
