How worried should India be about Red sea attacks on ships? HPCL boss explains

The ongoing attacks on shipping vessels by Houthi militants in the Red Sea have not impacted the flow of crude oil to India but freight has gone up due to rerouting via the Cape of Good Hope, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation chairman Pushp Kumar Joshi said. 

India, the world's third-biggest oil importer, gets a bulk of its Russian supplies through the Red Sea. Russian supplies made up for over 35 per cent of India's total crude imports in 2023, amounting to 1.7 million barrels per day. Russian ships and cargoes are not being prime targets of the attacks at this stage however rerouting of ships around the southern tip of Africa instead of transiting through the Suez Canal and Red Sea has led to ships taking longer voyages, resulting in the shortage of ships and rise in freight charges. 

In a post-third quarter earnings call with investors, Joshi said HPCL has tied up crude oil supplies till mid-April and it does not see any supply disruptions. HPCL meets 44-45 per cent of its crude oil needs on term contracts with national oil companies such as those in Saudi Arabia and Iraq. The remaining is on the spot or from the current market, he said. 

"Term crude has not been impacted (due to the Red Sea crisis)," he said, adding the spot imports are on DES basis where the shipping is arranged by the supplier. 

The Red Sea shipping route accounts for 50 per cent of the country's exports and 30 per cent of imports last fiscal. Domestic companies use the Red Sea route through the Suez Canal to trade with Europe, North America, North Africa and part of the Middle East. Last fiscal, these regions accounted for 50 per cent of the country's exports worth Rs 18 lakh crore and 30 per cent of imports worth Rs 17 lakh crore.
The country's overall merchandise trade was Rs 94 lakh crore last fiscal, with 68 per cent in value and 95 per cent in volume being sea-borne, according to a report by Crisil Ratings.