India’s strategic petroleum reserve can last 74 days to meet the demand arising out of any global turbulence, Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri informed the Rajya Sabha on Monday.
Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour, the minister said for any country like India, which is growing at a phenomenal pace, there must be a very viable and secure reserve, so that it is not in a vulnerable situation in the case of global turbulence.
He said India has several refineries both in the West coast as well as the East.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), today we are the world’s third largest consumer of crude oil. We have the world’s fourth largest refining capacity – currently around 260 million metric tonne per annum going on to 320 million metric tonne per annum. And, we are also the world’s fifth largest exporter of petroleum products.