India starts selling oil from strategic reserves after policy shift

NEW DELHI: India has begun selling oil from its strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) to state-run refiners as it implements a new policy to commercialise its storage by leasing out space, three sources familiar with the matter said.

Reuters reported last month that India had changed its policy to allow the Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL), which manages its oil inventories, to lease 30% of its overall 37 million barrels capacity to Indian and foreign companies.

Last year, the ISPRL filled the SPRs with cheap oil and it needs to sell some of that to make way for leasing.

So far Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) has leased one of the two equal size chambers at the 11-million-barrel Mangalore SPR.