India's crude oil imports dropped nearly 17% year-on-year in March, with the country also spending around 4.9% less on those purchases, according to provisional data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC), the government's energy statistics body. The decline coincided with the first full month of the ongoing West Asia crisis, which has disrupted regional supply dynamics. At the same time, liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports rose 20.5% during the same period, reflecting India's accelerating shift toward piped and cleaner gas alternatives.