Strategic Petroleum Reserve (India)

Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited (ISPRL)

  • Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited (ISPRL) is responsible for maintaining India's strategic petroleum reserves.
  • It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Oil Industry Development Board (OIDB).
  • Functions under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

Current Storage Capacity:

  • ISPRL maintains an emergency fuel store of 5.33 million metric tons (MMT) or 36.92 million barrels.
  • This storage capacity provides 9.5 days of consumption.

The storage facilities are located in three underground locations:

  • Mangalore, Karnataka
  • Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh
  • Padur (Udupi), Karnataka

Overall Oil Storage:

  • Indian refiners maintain 64.5 days of crude storage.
  • Combined with ISPRL’s strategic reserves, India has a total of 74 days of reserve oil storage.


Historical Background:

  • In 1998, the Vajpayee administration proposed building petroleum reserves as a long-term solution.
  • The first phase of construction created 5.33 MMT of storage capacity at a cost of $600 million.

Expansion Plans:

  • The 2017-18 budget announced the construction of two additional storage facilities:
    • Chandikhole, Odisha
    • Bikaner, Rajasthan
  • In June 2018, the Modi administration approved:

    • A new storage facility in Chandikhole .
    • Doubling the capacity at Padur, Karnataka .

Biggest Global Strategic Petroleum Reserves in the World:

  • United States- 714 million barrels
  • China- 475 million barrels
  • Japan- 324 million barrels


Sources: 

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