India ups proposed strategic crude reserve capacity to 5.3 mil mt

India has scaled up the capacity of its proposed Vizag based strategic crude reserve by 0.3 million metric tons (mt) to 1.3 million mt from 1 million mt, India’s minister of state for petroleum and natural gas Jitin Prasada said Tuesday in a statement in lower house of Indian parliament. The Indian government has shortlisted three locations in southern part of the country for the strategic reserves project envisaged almost four years ago. This strategic storage of crude oil would be in addition to the existing storages of crude oil and petroleum products available with the oil companies, he said. Crude oil from the reserves would be released by a government-appointed High Powered Committee, to deal with any short-term disruptions in crude oil supplies due to any unforeseen global event like war leading to an abnormal increase in crude oil prices, or to deal with a contingency arising out of a natural calamity, said Prasada. Oil industry sources said that the government is working on a proposal, submitted by a consortium of companies from Japan, China and Iran to build underground caverns to store crude oil. (July 15, 2009)