Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said that the violence in Iraq will not affect supply of crude oil to India from that country. He said, crude supplies to India from Iraq come from the Basra oilfields which are situated well away from the conflict zone in the north-eastern part of Iraq and loading of ships continued normally.

Mr Pradhan yesterday reviewed availability of petroleum products in the country in light of the week-long conflict that has threatened to push Iraq into civil war. Mr Pradhan asked oil firms to prepare a contingency plan for the short and medium term by tying up supplies from other sources in case oil from Iraq is disrupted. India bought 25.1 million tonnes of crude oil from Iraq in 2013-14 fiscal.

These imports included those by PSU and private refiners like Reliance Industries. An equal amount is planned to be imported in current year.