NEW DELHI: India is in advanced talks to store its crude oil in US strategic petroleum reserves as an insurance against any supply disruption or price spikes, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Friday.
He said the two nations have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to being cooperation on strategic petroleum reserves.
“We are also in an advanced stage of discussions for storing crude oil US strategic petroleum reserves to increase India’s strategic oil stockpile,” he told reporters after co-chairing the second India-US Strategic Energy Partnership Ministerial with US Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette.
The US has 714 million barrels of oil storage capacity in its strategic petroleum reserve (SPR), the world’s largest supply of emergency crude oil.
In comparison, India stores 5.33 million tonnes (about 38 million barrels) of crude oil in underground storages at three locations on the east and west coast, hardly enough to meet its 9.5 days needs.
