The Strait of Hormuz Crisis: Resilience in Indian Energy Sector and Geopolitical Rivalries

India, an emerging economy, is a highly energy-intensive economy. The dearth of access to viable domestic sources of crude oil and natural gas to meet the domestic energy demand has forced India to rely excessively on the international markets for the supply of the fuel. This dependence on the international markets has had serious vulnerabilities which were revealed during the recent geopolitical turmoil. India’s heavy reliance on Russia for crude oil imports was the first setback since late 2025 due to the increased US sanctions on Russia over its war in Ukraine. This has led India to depend more on the Arabian Peninsula for maintaining its supply of crude oil and natural gas. The supply from this region then got disrupted due to the 2026 Iran war, between Iran, US and Israel over Iran’s alleged development of nuclear weapons. In response to the US and Israel air strikes, Iran has blockaded the Hormuz Strait. Over 45% of the crude oil and 60% of the total natural gas imports by India pass through the Strait of Hormuz. The blockade has created a shortage of supply of both crude oil and natural gas across the globe, driving fuel inflation to double digits. Globalisation of the contemporary era has led to a deeper integration of the economies of the world leading to the adverse spillover effects also to be distributed all across the globe. The stability in the wider neighbourhood of India and access to alternative sources of fuel becomes imperative to India which aspires to become a developed economy by 2047, as stated in the policy of ‘Viksit Bharat.’ India’s push for renewable energy has a dual purpose of both environmental protection and to insulate India’s energy sector from the volatile geo-political conditions of the world, specifically West Asia. This research paper aims to study the supply disruptions, especially crude oil and natural gas, that India has faced owing to the blockade of the Hormuz Strait by Iran. Upon analysis, this research aims to provide feasible solutions that Indian policy makers can adopt both in the short term and in the long term to account for the risks associated with the import of fuel such as crude oil and natural gas.