TL;DR India’s domestic crude oil production fell 22.3% from 36.94 million tonnes (2015-16) to 28.70 million tonnes (2024-25). Over the same period, crude oil imports rose to 243.22 million tonnes, making imports 89.4% of the total crude supply. Natural gas imports (LNG) grew 67% and now account for 50.1% of total gas availability, up from 40.7% a decade ago. India’s crude oil and natural gas reserves, as of 2025, are 12% and 25% lower, respectively, than they were in 2014. The one bright spot: coal production crossed the 1 billion tonne mark and non-thermal electricity output doubled. India’s energy story is a tale of two tracks: a fossil fuel import problem that is deepening, and a renewables transition that is genuinely underway but not yet fast enough to offset it.

Context

India is among the largest energy consumers in the world, and, by most measures, its economy is only going to get more energy-hungry. More cars on the road, more factories running, more people moving into cities that need electricity around the clock. The question is where that energy comes from, and for oil and gas, the answer has been increasingly clear: not from within India’s own borders.

This wouldn’t be a crisis in isolation. Many large economies import most of their oil. But India’s exposure has a specific geography to it: much of the world’s oil and gas travels through the Strait of Hormuz, a 33-kilometre-wide passage between Oman and Iran at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. And the Middle East, which supplies roughly half of India’s crude, has been in a prolonged period of instability, including the current one.

In this article, we shall examine the arithmetic of India’s energy dependency.

Who Compiles this Data?
The data is compiled by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), and is released in the form of Energy Statistics reports.

Where can I download Clean & Structured Data on Energy Statistics in India?

Clean, standardised, structured, and ready-to-use datasets related to custodial crimes in India can be downloaded from Dataful.

Key Insights

From 37 Million Tonnes to 29 Million: A Decade of Declining Wells

In 2015-16, India produced 36.94 million tonnes of crude oil domestically. By 2024-25 (provisional), that figure had fallen to 28.7 million tonnes, a drop of 22.3% over nine years. The decline has been largely steady: every year from 2015-16 to 2020-21, domestic production fell without interruption. There was a marginal uptick in 2023-24 (29.36 million tonnes from 29.18 million tonnes), but 2024-25 shows it falling again. At the same time, crude oil imports rose from 202.85 million tonnes in 2015-16 to 243.22 million tonnes in 2024-25 (provisional).

Worryingly, India’s proved crude oil reserves also fell from 762.73 million tonnes (2014) to 672.07 million tonnes (2025 provisional), a 12% decline over eleven years. Natural gas reserves fell more sharply, from 1,427.15 Billion Cubic Metres (BCM) in 2014 to 1,073.01 BCM in 2025, down nearly 25%. This indicates that India’s subsurface hydrocarbon base is not being replaced at the rate it is being depleted.

India is also importing more Refined Fuel, not just Raw Crude

India’s imports of finished petroleum products have grown from 29.46 million tonnes in 2015-16 to 50.90 million tonnes in 2024-25, a 72.8% increase. This is a different category from crude oil imports: these are already-refined products like diesel, LPG, and other fuels imported directly for consumption, not for further processing.

During the same period, exports of petroleum products also grew from 60.54 million tonnes to 65.08 million tonnes. So, while imports have almost grown at 70%, the exports grew at a modest 8%.

Further, the consumption of petroleum products also rose from 185 million tonnes in 2015-16 to 239 million tonnes in 2024-25(P), reflecting a CAGR of 2.92 % over a span of 10 years.

India imported more gas than it produces for sale in 2024-25

Natural gas is a cleaner-burning fuel than coal or oil, and India has been trying to raise its share of the energy mix. The government’s target is to increase gas in the energy mix to 15% by 2030. The data from MoSPI shows that gas availability has grown from 52.51 BCM in 2015-16 to 71.31 BCM in 2024-25. But this growth is coming almost entirely from imports, not domestic production.

The data on imports show that, in 2015-16, India imported 21.39 BCM of natural gas. By 2024-25, that had risen to 35.72 BCM, a 67% increase. Meanwhile, domestic net production for consumption moved from 31.12 BCM to 35.59 BCM, showing a modest rise of 14%. The two lines have now effectively converged: in 2024-25, imports (35.72 BCM) slightly exceeded domestic net production for consumption (35.59 BCM).

The variability in LNG imports also reflects global price swings. The sharp drop in 2022-23 (26.30 BCM) from 31 BCM the previous year coincided with extremely high global LNG spot prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which squeezed demand. When prices eased, imports bounced back sharply to 31.80 BCM in 2023-24 and 35.72 BCM in 2024-25. This price sensitivity is itself a risk: India’s gas availability is partially dependent on global LNG markets, which are already volatile.

Coal production surged, while clean electricity doubled.

Coal production (both coking and non-coking together) crossed the 1 billion tonne mark for the first time in 2024-25 (1,047.52 million tonnes), with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.64% over the decade. This is India’s primary domestic energy success story: reducing dependence on coal imports. Coal imports have still grown from 203.95 million tonnes in 2015-16 to 243.62 million tonnes in 2024-25, at a CAGR of 2%, but coal’s domestic production base is vastly larger than oil’s, and India retains more control over it.

Importantly, electricity generation from large hydro, nuclear, and other renewable energy sources (utility scale) more than doubled from 224,571 Gigawatt Hour (GWh) in 2015-16 to 460,324 GWh in 2024-25.

The only caveat is that non-thermal electricity, while growing rapidly, still represents only about one-fourth of India’s total electricity generation. And reducing oil and gas import dependence requires either finding more hydrocarbons at home (reserves data suggest this is difficult) or substituting electricity for fuel in transport and industry, a transition that is underway but decades from complete.

Why does it matter

A significant share of India’s oil and gas imports originates from the Middle East, a region that has historically been prone to geopolitical instability. The rising share of imports itself increases exposure to global supply disruptions and price volatility. Even small disruptions in global supply chains can translate into higher import bills, inflationary pressure and currency stress.

The recent increase in gas imports, alongside declining or stagnant domestic production, reinforces this vulnerability. Even small disruptions in supply can have outsized effects when dependence is high.

Key numbers

Production (Coal/ Crude Oil in Million Tonnes, Natural Gas in BCM)

• Coal: 2015-16: 639.23 MT, 2018-19: 728.72 MT, 2021-22: 778.21 MT, 2024-25(P): 1047.52 MT

• Crude Oil: 2015-16: 36.94 MT, 2018-19: 34.20 MT, 2021-22: 29.69 MT, 2024-25(P): 28.7 MT

• Natural Gas Net Production: 2015-16: 31.12 BCM, 2018-19: 32.05 BCM, 2021-22: 33.12 BCM, 2024-25(P): 35.59 BCM

Imports (Coal/Crude Oil in MT, Natural Gas in BCM)

• Crude Oil: 2015-16: 202.85 MT, 2018-19: 226.50 MT, 2021-22: 212.38 MT, 2024-25(P): 243.22 MT

• Natural Gas: 2015-16: 21.39 BCM, 2018-19: 28.74 BCM, 2021-22: 31.03 BCM, 2024-25(P): 35.72 BCM

• Petroleum Products (Gross): 2015-16: 29.46 MT, 2018-19: 33.35 MT, 2021-22: 39.02 MT, 2024-25(P): 50.9 MT

Electricity Generation (in Thousand GWh)

• Renewable: 2015-16: 224.6, 2018-19: 299.5, 2021-22: 369.7, 2024-25(P): 460.3

• Non-Renewable: 2015-16: 943, 2018-19: 1072.3, 2021-22: 1114.8, 2024-25(P): 1363.9