India paid second highest additional fossil fuel import bill during Iran conflict. Report finds $22 billion bill

In the six months since the US-Israeli attacks on Iran, countries importing fossil fuels have had to stump up an additional $55 billion every month - the largest sustained price shock since the 1990 Gulf War. India was second in the list after China, a new report said.

A brief by Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) said that without the clean energy expansion of the past five years, the fossil fuel import bill would have been $36 billion higher.

India paid an additional $22 billion, after China with $35.5 billion, for fossil fuels during the period.

Following US and Israeli strikes on Iran, higher oil and gas import costs have hit poorer countries hardest. India ranks second in the list of the top ten countries that paid the most between March and August 2026.

Crude alone accounts for $164 billion of the extra cost, at an average premium of 35% over what markets had priced in before the strikes. But refined fuels – the products people actually rely on day-to-day – rose by a higher proportion than crude.

Diesel and gasoil were up 59%, adding $74 billion; gasoline rose $36 billion, up 43%; LNG rose 60% in the Atlantic basin and 75% in the Pacific, adding USD 38 billion; and jet fuel was up 59%, adding $20 billion.

How clean energy played out

Countries that invested in clean energy saved $36 billion and counting. Beyond geography, a country’s resilience to surging fossil fuel prices has been largely determined by the share of clean power in its energy mix.

“The best way to protect against high oil prices is to get off the black stuff as quickly as possible. Oil and gas prices have long proven to be an Achilles’ heel for both household finances and the global economy as a whole. Meanwhile, countries that invested in clean energy after past energy crises have saved billions of dollars,” says Luke Wickenden, Energy Analyst at CREA.

In the first five months of the crisis alone, clean power capacity added since 2020 saved importing countries an estimated $36 billion in avoided coal, gas and oil imports. $10.6 billion of those savings exists only because of the war: once the crisis pushed fuel prices up, every tonne of coal or cubic metre of gas these countries no longer needed to buy was money they did not have to pay at inflated wartime prices, on top of what they would already be saving in normal times.

Clean energy production isn’t the only thing reducing reliance on volatile fossil fuels: electrification across key sectors like heating and transport is also cutting into demand.