Delcy Rodríguez visits India - will Venezuelan oil earn permanent place in Delhi's energy mix?

Starting Wednesday, Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela's acting president, is in India for talks on trade, investment, healthcare and renewable energy.

But the relationship between the two countries still revolves around a single commodity: oil.

India, the world's third-largest importer of oil, has sharply increased purchases of Venezuelan crude in recent months, turning the South American producer into an increasingly useful supplier just as the Iran war has choked energy flows from the Gulf.

India imports about 90% of its oil. Roughly half its crude imports - around 2.5-2.7 million barrels a day - pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow Gulf chokepoint now effectively closed by the conflict.

That gives Venezuela an importance that far exceeds its place in India's trade statistics.

Bilateral trade was worth just $679m in 2024-25 - a tiny fraction of India's global commerce. Yet whenever Delhi seeks to diversify its oil suppliers, Caracas becomes hard to ignore.

Venezuela was India's fifth-largest source of crude oil imports in May, supplying about 266,000 barrels a day, or roughly 5.3% of India's total crude imports, according to maritime analytics firm Kpler. Only Russia, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Brazil supplied more.

After a year-long interruption triggered by US measures against buyers of Venezuelan crude, Indian refiners resumed imports in February following a sanctions-easing agreement between Washington and Caracas.

Whenever Delhi seeks to diversify crude supplies away from the Middle East now, the world's largest proven oil reserves become hard to ignore.

That is the backdrop to Rodríguez's sixth visit to India, where she is due to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior officials.

"It is an important energy partner for us," said Randhir Jaiswal, spokesman for India's foreign ministry, noting that Indian state-run energy firms have investments in Venezuela.

According to Kpler, India imported around 280,000 barrels a day of Venezuelan crude in April and May, the first cargoes after a nine-month hiatus, with June arrivals expected to rise to above 300,000 barrels a day.

Venezuelan crude's return coincides with growing concerns about supply disruptions in the Middle East and uncertainty around the Strait of Hormuz.

"However, the timing of the initial cargoes suggests they were likely secured well before the recent disruptions, highlighting a longer-term sourcing strategy rather than a purely reactive response," Sumit Ritolia, lead research analyst at Kpler, said.

For Indian refiners, however, the attraction is not merely geopolitical.

Relatively cheaper to buy but challenging to refine, Venezuelan crude is a heavy, sulphur-rich oil. India's sophisticated refineries are among the few that can process it efficiently into fuels such as diesel and jet fuel.

The renewed interest marks a partial return to an earlier relationship.

Before US sanctions halted imports in 2019, Venezuela had become one of India's most important oil suppliers, rising to third place in 2012 and remaining among the top five thereafter. By 2019, it was shipping nearly 16 million tonnes of crude a year, helping push bilateral trade to $6.4bn, overwhelmingly driven by oil.

Yet Venezuela is unlikely to transform India's energy mix, experts say.

Output has risen by roughly 400–500 kbd (thousand barrels per day) this year, but remains far below historic levels, limiting its ability to replace major suppliers.

"Instead, Venezuelan barrels are best viewed as an attractive diversification option - providing Indian refiners with access to economical heavy crude while reducing reliance on any single supply region," said Ritola.

Whether Venezuela can become a bigger supplier will depend on production, sanctions and geopolitics.

But Delhi sees scope for a deeper energy relationship.

As the Indian government puts it in a statement, Venezuela has been "an important partner" in energy and investment, with Indian state-owned firms already holding significant stakes in the country's oil sector and "keen to explore opportunities for further enhancing their presence".