Strategic petroleum reserves refer to crude oil stockpiles held by particular government of a country for economic and national security during an energy crisis .
The sharp slide in crude oil prices on the global level has raised the spirits of think-tanks and policy makers in India to enhance its oil reserves . In 2003 India started the development of a strategic crude oil reserves sized at 37000000(approx.) barrels, enough for 14 days in the event of energy emergency.
presently the strategic reserve facilities are:
- Mangalore -10.995 million barrels
- Udupi -18.7 million barrels
- Visakhapatnam - 1.33 million ton.
A special purpose vehicle -Indian strategic petroleum reserve limited under the oil industry development board was floated to implement the project.
On the other hand China, which has 170 million barrels of strategic oil reserves has been continuously expanding it further to 90 days reserve to match USA.
India is in talks with west asian and middle east crude oil producers like kuwait and saudi arabia to allow them to book crude oil storage facilities on the east and west coast.
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| Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with saudi king Salman bin abdulaziz |
Recently saudi Crown prince Salman bin Abdulaziz met Indian prime minister Narendra Modi in Brisbane on the sidelines of G20 meeting to discuss investment in strategic oil storage in india. This follows a meeting two weeks a ago when Indian petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan, met his saudi counterpart Ali al naimi.
With the increase in crude oil demand the government is al;so realising the need for setting additional storage facilities for 12.5 million tons of such facilities in Rajasthan, Odihsa ,Gujrat and Karnatka.
With the increase in crude oil demand the government is al;so realising the need for setting additional storage facilities for 12.5 million tons of such facilities in Rajasthan, Odihsa ,Gujrat and Karnatka.
