Mumbai, Mar 14 (PTI) Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday said India is well-placed to deal with any situation on crude oil and fuel, as the West Asia crisis disrupts gas shipments and shipping routes, and highlighted that the government has ramped up kerosene production to provide an alternate option for the common man.
Speaking at the CNBC-TV18 India Business Leaders Awards 2026 ceremony, Goyal said the government plans to come up with some “concrete agenda” next week to support exporters.
“On crude oil, on fuel, we are pretty well placed. We have good stocks in hand. There’s been absolutely no disturbance of any sort on the crude or the fuel front, petrol, diesel, aviation fuel,” Goyal said.
He said that India has ramped up kerosene production so that, in the event of any delays in LPG supplies, there will be an alternate cooking medium for the common man. “Incidentally, we are also covering through imports from diversified sources the requirements of LPG and LNG,” he said.
“The shipping times were barely three or four days, at best seven days, when these shipments of gas came into India, he said, adding that “Now we have to diversify to sources which are significantly far away from India… Canada, the US, and possibly Russia, we are looking at various alternate sources which will feed the requirements of India,” he said.
Terming the ongoing geopolitical situation a wake-up call for the country, he said that whenever India faced a challenge, it has always been able to convert that into an opportunity.
“I think India is a very resilient country, a very strong economy with good fundamentals and I’m very confident that while we have a war raging on, I’m not an astrologer and can’t predict how long it will run, but my own sense is the people of India understand that this is a challenge we have to overcome,” the Commerce & Industry minister said.
“My own sense is that there will be a certain shortfall in economic activity in the short run, but we’ll make up for that in the months to come. (But) We will continue to be the fastest-growing large economy in the world for at least two more decades,” Goyal said.
Acknowledging that while the country is facing “stress” on the rupee, he said there is no reason for anyone to panic as rupee is expected to bounce back in a more gradual fashion, possibly once the war is over.
“We’ve certainly seen that investments in any period of time, when there is a conflict or a war, usually look for safe haven. We’ve seen a lot of money flow into gold, for instance, and the import of gold and silver has shot up.
Stating that his Ministry is in dialogue with all the stakeholders, he said, “We’ve been engaging with all the export promotion councils on a daily basis. We have a 24-hour helpline ready to resolve any issues,” he said.
The Commerce ministry has also worked out certain schemes which will help create an insurance cover should any export cargo be damaged or lost or even inordinately delayed because of the Red Sea problem, the Strait of Hormuz problem or the shipping line difficulties, he said.
“We are doing the inter-ministerial consultation. Next week we’ll be coming out with some more concrete action agenda to support the exporters,” the Minister said. PTI IAS DRR DRR
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