India raised proposed strategic crude reserves

India has scaled up the capacity of its proposed strategic crude reserve in the eastern coastal city of Vizag by 0.3 million metric tons (MT) to 1.3 million MT, India’s Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Jitin Prasada said. The Indian government shortlisted three locations in the southern part of the country for the strategic reserves project, which was envisaged almost four years ago. The strategic storage of crude oil would be in addition to the existing storage of crude oil and petroleum products of oil companies. Crude oil from the reserves would be released by a government-appointed committee, which would be tasked to deal with any short-term disruptions in crude oil supplies due to global events such as war, which would lead to an abnormal increase in crude oil prices. The committee would also have to formulate a contingency plan for natural calamities. (July 15, 2009)