India’s petroleum import bill, explained.
Where the crude comes from, how supplier shares changed, what refineries turn it into—and how much really goes into cars and two-wheelers.
First, the naming
“Petrol imports” is usually shorthand for a much broader oil story.
India principally imports crude oil, then refines it into petrol, diesel, aviation fuel, LPG feedstocks, bitumen and other products.
$134.7bn
Crude imports
FY2025–26 · customs value
17.4%
Share of all imports
FY2025–26 · customs value
88.7%
Crude import dependence
FY2025–26 · PPAC
$53.0bn
Refined-product exports
FY2025–26 · HS 2710 customs value
Where India buys its crude
Follow every year in the five-year transition, then switch between dollar exposure and physical tonnes to separate price effects from sourcing changes.
Share of crude imports
Switch between customs value and physical tonnes
Russia
Iraq
Saudi Arabia
United Arab Emirates
United States
Russia
2.0%
30.3%
+28.3pp
Iraq
24.8%
17.1%
-7.6pp
Saudi Arabia
18.7%
14.5%
-4.2pp
United Arab Emirates
10.1%
11.2%
+1.2pp
United States
9.2%
7.3%
-1.9pp
Kuwait
6.5%
3.3%
-3.2pp
Nigeria
7.0%
3.0%
-4.0pp
Russia went from 9th to 1st—but its share has eased from the peak.
Russia reached 35.2% in FY2024–25, then moved to 30.3% in the latest year. Iraq and Saudi Arabia remain major suppliers.
$134.7bn
latest total
61.9%
top-three share
$519/t
average customs value
Top-three concentration peaked at 69.7% in FY23-24. Value and volume shares differ because crude grades and prices differ by supplier.
In FY2025–26 customs volume rose 6.3%, while value fell 5.8%. The average unit value dropped about 11.4%, showing why the bill can fall even when imported tonnes rise.
Crude dominates—but it is not the entire bill
The five main petroleum customs lines total about $173.9bn in FY2025–26, or 22.4% of all merchandise imports.
Crude oil
HS 2709
$134.7bn
Petroleum gas, including LNG & LPG
HS 2711
$26.6bn
Refined petroleum products
HS 2710
$9.3bn
Petroleum coke, bitumen & residues
HS 2713
$3.1bn
Petroleum jelly, waxes & related products
HS 2712
$0.2bn
Imports are inputs. Consumption is the end use.
A dollar of imported crude can become fuel sold in India, feedstock for industry, or a refined product exported abroad. Those are different questions and need different datasets.
$53.0bn
refined petroleum exports in FY2025–26
Customs trade lens
$134.7bn · 259.8 MMT
TradeStat’s HS 2709 declarations. This is the consistent source for supplier shares and merchandise-trade comparisons on this page.
Energy-sector lens
$121.8bn · 245.3 MMT
PPAC’s crude-import series. It is used for refinery, consumption and dependency indicators. Coverage, timing and valuation differ, so the two series should not be silently combined.
One imported input becomes many domestic products
The refinery sits between the customs record and the final user. That is why crude-import data cannot directly answer which vehicle consumed it.
Imported crude
A raw input, not pump-ready petrol
Indian refineries
Separate and convert crude into many products
Road transport
Petrol and diesel
Aviation
ATF / jet fuel
Homes & kitchens
LPG
Petrochemicals
Naphtha and LPG feedstocks
Industry
Diesel, fuel oil and petcoke
Road building
Bitumen
28.0 MMT
Domestic crude production
245.3 MMT
Crude imported
272.1 MMT
Crude processed
284.9 MMT
Petroleum products produced
61.5 MMT
Petroleum products exported
FY2025–26 · PPAC. These indicators describe system scale, not a closed mass balance; inventories, refinery gains, feedstocks and product categories differ.
What petroleum is used for in India
The complete FY2025–26 distribution spans freight, mobility, cooking, aviation, petrochemicals, heavy industry and infrastructure.
Diesel
Freight, buses, farming and industry
39.2%
94.7 MMT
Petrol
Two-wheelers, cars and utility vehicles
17.6%
42.6 MMT
LPG
Homes, commercial kitchens and industry
13.7%
33.2 MMT
Pet coke
Cement and energy-intensive industry
7.6%
18.4 MMT
Naphtha
Petrochemicals and fertiliser feedstock
4.8%
11.7 MMT
Remaining
Derived remainder: fuel oil, lubes, LDO, kerosene and others
9.6%
23.1 MMT
Aviation fuel
Passenger and cargo aviation
3.8%
9.2 MMT
Bitumen
Roads and construction
3.6%
8.7 MMT
Petrol is only one-sixth of domestic petroleum use.
Diesel is more than twice as large as petrol by mass. Petroleum coke and naphtha also make industry a major end user, while LPG, aviation fuel and bitumen connect the oil system to homes, travel and infrastructure.
FY2025–26 · 241.6 MMT total consumption · complete distribution grouped to avoid an unexplained remainder
Petrol demand is growing—but it is still one part of the oil system
Current consumption and ethanol-blending data provide the scale. A nationwide retail-outlet survey supplies the vehicle split, with an important timing caveat.
42.6 MMT
Petrol consumed
FY2025–26
17.6%
Share of petroleum use
by mass
+6.5%
Annual consumption growth
from 40.0 MMT
20%
Ethanol blending
FY2025–26
Who used petrol in the 2021 retail-outlet survey
58%
Two-wheelers
31%
Cars
10%
Utility vehicles
1%
Three-wheelers
A benchmark, not a live counter
These shares come from PPAC’s July–September 2021 retail-outlet survey. They describe petrol sold by vehicle type; customs data cannot trace imported crude to a specific vehicle. The survey also followed pandemic restrictions, so it should not be treated as a current vehicle census.
The same study found 89% of diesel retail sales went to transport; trucks used 69% of that transport diesel.
India has a crude-dependence problem, not simply a “petrol import” problem.
The exposure is broad: road transport is important, but so are freight, aviation, household LPG, petrochemicals and construction. Refining capacity turns that imported crude into both domestic energy and export revenue.
30.3%
Russia’s latest share
up from 2.0% in FY22
58%
Petrol used by 2-wheelers
2021 survey benchmark
Sources & method
Import values and source-country shares are from the Ministry of Commerce & Industry’s TradeStat commodity-wise country table. Product consumption, crude import dependence and gross petroleum trade come from the Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell’s June 2026 oil and gas snapshot. Vehicle-use shares are from PPAC’s all-India sectoral demand study.
Country shares use TradeStat’s principal commodity “Petroleum: crude”. Value shares are reported by TradeStat; volume shares and unit values are derived from its tonnes series. Product mix uses HS-4 customs lines. PPAC figures describe the energy system and are kept separate from customs totals. MMT means million metric tonnes; percentage-point changes may differ slightly due to rounding.
Freshness: TradeStat retrieved 1 August 2026 · PPAC energy data through FY2025–26 and June 2026 · vehicle-use benchmark surveyed July–September 2021.