Parliament Question: Maintaining strategic oil reserves

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4135 ANSWERED ON - 30/03/2026 MAINTAINING STRATEGIC OIL RESERVES

4135. SMT. RAJANI ASHOKRAO PATIL:

Will the Minister of PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS be pleased to state:

(a) Whether the Government is aware of the importance of maintaining adequate strategic reserves to safeguard the country against supply disruptions;

(b) the current capacity of strategic reserves available in the country, including location-wise details;

(c) the extent to which these reserves were utilised during recent global disruptions such as geopolitical conflicts, supply chain interruptions, or price volatility;

(d) whether the Government has any plans to expand the existing strategic reserve capacity, including timelines and budgetary provisions; and

(e) whether the Government considers the present level of preparedness adequate to address future shocks and emergencies, and if not, the corrective measures proposed? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS (SHRI SURESH GOPI)

(a) & (b) Yes. Government, through a Special Purpose Vehicle called Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve Limited (ISPRL), have established Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) facilities with total capacity of 5.33 Million Metric Tonnes (MMT) of crude oil at 3 locations in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka which can act as buffer for short-term supply shocks.

(c) Reserves are being utilised as per the needs of the industry.

(d) & (e) In July 2021, Government had also approved the establishment of two additional commercial-cum-strategic petroleum reserve facilities with total storage capacity of 6.5 MMT in Odisha and Karnataka, on a Public Private Partnership mode at a total project cost of Rs. 14,527 crores with the Viability Gap Funding (VGF) capped at 60% of the total project cost.

Further, to ensure security of crude supplies and to mitigate the risk of dependence on crude oil from single region, Oil and Gas Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) which are Board run entities source crude oil from diverse sources depending on their technical and commercial considerations. Currently, these PSEs import crude oil from 41 countries including new suppliers like USA, Nigeria, Angola, Canada, Columbia, Brazil and Mexico in addition to traditional suppliers in the Middle East such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and Qatar.

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