By Anjali Sharma
WASHINGTON – According to an analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air issued on Friday stated that India incurred an estimated $22 billion in gross additional fossil-fuel import costs between March and August 2026 after the energy-price shock triggered by the Hormuz crisis.
The figure makes India the second-most affected importing country after China in terms of gross additional import costs, CREA said.
The report analysis said that India’s net additional cost across fossil fuels was estimated at $14.4 billion, equivalent to 0.38 per cent of the country’s GDP, or roughly 1.4 days of national income when measured against economic impact..
CREA said India’s net additional cost for crude oil alone stood at $20.5 billion.
India’s additional cost was the third-highest, behind the European Union at $78 billion and China at $35 billion, the majjor fossil-fuel importers.
The analysis covers seaborne crude oil, oil products and liquefied natural gas.
CREA calculated the additional cost by comparing the prices importers actually paid with what futures markets had been pricing before the conflict-related strikes.
It said globally, fossil-fuel importers paid an estimated $330 billion in additional costs for seaborne crude oil, oil products and LNG during the 6 months after the US-Iran war, compared with pre-war futures market expectations.
Crude oil accounted for the largest portion of the additional bill at $164.1 billion.
It was followed by diesel and gasoil at $73.8 billion, gasoline at $35.7 billion, LNG at $38 billion across the two basins, and jet fuel at $20 billion.
The gross additional cost estimate does not factor in the additional revenues earned by countries that export fossil fuels.
CREA said the conflict triggered the largest sustained oil-price shock since the 1990 Gulf War.
Low- and middle-income importing economies were particularly exposed, with the typical country in this group paying about twice as much relative to GDP as the typical high-income country.
The organisation estimated that the monthly average cost of the crisis to fossil-fuel importers was comparable with global renewable-power investment during 2025.
Brent crude prices climbed to nearly twice their pre-strike level in the weeks after the strikes and have averaged about 38 per cent above the pre-strike level since then.
Oil prices remained above their pre-strike level on 94% of trading days during the period.
Brent slipped below the pre-strike level in late June before rising sharply to around $105 a barrel on July 23.
The benchmark eased, with the July average at about $84 a barrel. Between March and August 2026, Brent spot prices averaged $93 a barrel.
According to CREA, no six-month period has recorded an average Brent price at this level since the price surge that ended in December 2022, when global energy markets were still dealing with the fallout from Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it concluded.
