Foreign secretary Vikram Misri on Monday made a case for the diversification of oil procurement without disclosing whether India had decided to stop buying Russian oil, and replace it with American and Venezuelan alternatives as repeatedly claimed by US President Donald Trump.

Trump had also spelt out in the executive order he signed on Friday, which dropped the additional tariff imposed on India since August as a penalty for procuring oil from Russia, that New Delhi would diversify its energy purchases beyond Russian oil or face punitive measures.

Asked for a clarification on the Russian oil issue during a briefing on the Seychelles President’s visit, Misri went into a detailed explanation of how the government and oil companies approach oil trade in general. No countries were named, but there was emphasis on diversification and market dynamics.

“We are neither dependent on any single source for this, nor do we intend to be. And it is natural for the mix of sources to vary from time to time, depending on objective market conditions. Our approach is to maintain multiple sources of supply and diversify them as appropriate to ensure stability. Therefore, I would say that the more diversified we are in this area, the more secure we are.”

India, according to him, is not just one of the largest consumers of energy, but also plays an important role as a “stabilising factor’’ in global energy markets. “And that’s one reason why we import energy from multiple sources… The key drivers of our energy policy are adequate availability, fair pricing and reliability of supply.’’

Underscoring the well-known fact that the actual sourcing of energy is done by oil companies — both in the public and private sectors — the foreign secretary said they make decisions based on market conditions. “They assess availability at any given point in time, they assess risks, they assess costs in this process. And obviously, all of these companies also have their own internal accountability-related processes to look at and certain fiduciary responsibilities in the market,’’ Misri said.