India, Jan. 12 -- As the world watches geopolitical turbulence unfold in Venezuela, refinery chiefs in India are quietly calculating spreadsheets with growing confidence. While global oil markets brace for uncertainty, India finds itself in a peculiar position, not threatened, but strategically positioned. The Venezuelan crisis of January 2026 exposes a truth that India's policymakers understood years ago: energy security is built not on dependency on a single supplier, but on the agility to pivot when the geopolitical tectonic plates shift.

For decades, India's energy imports resembled a delicate balancing act. But in the span of just four years, from the Ukraine war to today, India has fundamentally rewired its crude sourcing architect...