India has stored as much as 32 million tonnes of oil in underground storages, tanks, pipelines, and on ships to create a stockpile using low global oil prices to its advantage, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Monday.
India is the world's third-biggest oil importer and is reliant on foreign nations to meet 85 per cent of its oil needs.
In a Facebook talk on mitigating challenges in times of COVID-19, Pradhan said globally oil demand has evaporated due to lockdowns imposed to curb the spread of coronavirus. "This is an unprecedented situation in the energy sector. Such a situation hasn't been witnessed ever before".
This has led to a crash in oil prices, with crude in the US market even slipping into negative territory, he said.
India is, however, using this crash to its advantage by stocking oil for use at later date.
"Taking advantage of low global oil prices, we decided to fill up our strategic reserves," he said.
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The purchases from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Iraq helped fill up the 5.33 million tonnes underground strategic reserves that India had built as insurance against supply and price disruptions.
Besides, 7 million tonnes of low priced oil has been stored on floating ships, he said.
"Similarly, 25 million tonnes of oil has been kept at inland depots and tanks, refinery pipelines and product tanks," he said. "The oil stored is equivalent to 20 per cent of India's demand."
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