NEW DELHI: High oil prices have pushed India to the brink of a severe energy crisis, taking it close to seeking a loan from the International Monetary Fund, but sheer good luck has saved the country so far, Petroleum Secretary Vivek Rae said. “We haven’t gone to the IMF yet, but we are pretty close to getting to the IMF,” Rae said at the Petrotech conference on Monday. He said net oil imports of the country amounted to $100 billion a year.He said the IT revolution and NRI remittances had helped bring $120 billion to the economy , which just about balances the outflow for oil. “And the closer we get to this balance, the more volatile the rupee becomes vis-à-vis foreign currencies like the US dollar. And therefore we are lucky and fortunate that the shale gas revolution has helped to stabilise to some extent international oil prices. If it had not happened and if our oil import bill had been 50% higher than today — we would have certainly have been before IMF. We would certainly have seen the rupee heading towards Rs 100 to the dollar, and we would have been in dire straits,” he said. International oil prices have remained over $100 a barrel.In addition to this, the rupee has depreciated sharply, making the rupee cost even higher and the economy vulnerable to external shocks. India imports close to 80% of the oil and nearly half the gas it consumes. “This is the broad picture before us and we cannot afford to be complacent. What has happened to rupee over the last year is a reflection of how close we are to tipping point in terms of the current account deficit and in terms of the true impact that our oil import bill has on the overall fiscal position. That’s why I said we have not gone to IMF but we are still getting close to getting to the IMF. This is not a quiet crisis,” Rae said.Rae said oil shocks in the past had forced India to take loans from IMF. He said the Iran-Iraq war and Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait had damaged India’s balance of payments. Rae’s concerns were shared by Daniel Yergin, a renowned scholar and Pultizer prize winner who was given the life-time achievement award by PM Manmohan Singh at Petrotech conference.Yergin said India’s high dependence on imports was “alarming” . Rae said the government faced several challenges, including pressure for subsidies. “You have to let the market play out. The more government tinkers with the prices, the more it loses out in terms of time and speed. Government cannot respond at the speed of market,” said Rae. “There are always pressures to intervene with subsidies.”