



Six days or 74 days? Decoding India’s petroleum reserve debate, in charts
India’s petroleum reserves have come under scrutiny since the outbreak of the West Asia war, with concerns intensifying as government data showed India’s current capacity in strategic reserves can only cover roughly five-six days of total consumption.Now, this is not as alarming as it seems, as India’s overall capacity is much higher. However, the current crisis has put a spotlight on India’s limited ability in the face of severe shocks to oil, gas and petroleum product supply.India currently has three strategic petroleum reserves (SPRs)—buried in underground caverns—in Visakhapatnam, Mangaluru, and Padur.
These together have a storage capacity of 5.33 million tonnes. As per Mint calculations, this can cover around 9 days of average daily consumption of 0.6 million tonnes of petroleum products in the country seen over the past five years.
With 1.3 and 1.5 million tonnes of capacity, Visakhapatnam and Mangaluru can cover about 2.2 days and 2.5 days of demand, respectively, while Padur 2.5 million tonnes can cover about 4.2 days of demand. However, these reserves are only 64% full (about 3.37 million tonnes), forming the basis for the widely cited estimate of six days of coverage.The widely reported six days or nine days of petroleum cover is true, but it is limited to just strategic reserves.
Read on livemint.com