NEW DELHI: Capitalising on low global oil prices, India will fill its underground strategic oil reserves with oil from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Iraq as it shores up supplies to meet any supply or price disruption.
India has built 5.33 million tonnes of emergency storage — enough to meet its oil needs for 9.5 days, in underground rock caverns in Mangalore and Padur in Karnataka and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
The stat Mangalore and Padur are half-empty and there was some space available in Vizag storage as well. Sources with direct knowledge of the development said that these will now be filled by buying oil from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Iraq.
