Union Minister for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman at a press conference on India's 2025 budget
India struggles with SPR expansion
Plans to boost capacity have seen little progress as the country lags behind other major oil consumers and importers
India’s slow progress in developing its strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) is a concern for the country’s energy ministry, which seems to have accelerated growth in everything else in the oil space. The government has plans to expand capacity, but India is still way behind its peers and shows little sign of achieving the energy security it craves any time soon. India operates three SPR facilities, all of which are in underground rock caverns on the eastern and western coasts, with a total designed capacity of 5.33mt. These can cumulatively provide c.9.5 days of oil requirements, as per the consumption levels seen in the 2019–20 financial year. 5.33mt – India’s SPR capacity Indian st
Also in this section
15 May 2025
Financial problems, lack of exploration success and political dogma cause uncertainty across much of the region
14 May 2025
The invisible hand of the market has seen increasing transparency but much more needs to be done to build a better understanding
13 May 2025
A fall in Venezuelan output drives overall production lower, as Saudi Arabia starts to slowly bring more crude to the market
12 May 2025
With the gas industry’s staunchest advocates and opponents taking brutal blows, the sector looks like treading a path of insipid indifference
