India's strategic oil reserves, which are meant to act as a buffer against supply disruptions or sudden spikes in prices, are currently filled to about two-thirds of their capacity, the government told the Rajya Sabha on Monday. India, the world's third largest energy consumer, is dependent on imports for about 88 percent of its crude oil needs. To safeguard against sudden supply disruptions, it has created underground storage facilities with a total capacity of 5.33 million tonnes in Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Mangaluru and Padur in Karnataka.
Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Suresh Gopi said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha that the quantity of crude oil available in these caves (reserves) keeps changing depending on the market conditions. He said that currently about 3.372 million tonnes of crude oil stock is available with ISPRL, which is about 64 percent of the total storage capacity.
The Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve Limited (ISPRL), the specialized entity that manages these facilities, maintains this stock as a dynamic reserve. He said that actual reserves are a dynamic number that depends on stocks and actual consumption, and both of them do not remain constant.
The condition of these reserves has received everyone's attention after supply disruptions due to the ongoing conflict in West Asia. This conflict has affected the supply of crude oil, natural gas and LPG coming from Gulf countries. India spent $110 billion on importing about 226 million tonnes of crude oil in the first 11 months of the current financial year — 88.7 per cent of its total needs.
Almost half of this import came from countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq and UAE, and these consignments were sent through the strategically important 'Strait of Hormuz'.
India also spent $12.4 billion on importing almost half of its natural gas consumption between April 2025 and February 2026, while about 60 percent of LPG demand was met through imports.
A large part of it – 85-95 percent of LPG and about 30 percent of gas – passes through this narrow sea route. Although the disruptions in the supply of crude oil have been compensated to some extent by importing oil from Russia, West Africa, America and Latin America, some restrictions have been imposed on the supply of gas and LPG for industrial and commercial users.
Gopi said that the government had approved two more commercial-cum-strategic reserves in July 2021, whose total capacity is 6.5 million tonnes. Of which 4 million tonnes is in Chandikhol of Odisha and 2.5 million tonnes is in Padur of Karnataka. He said that the contract has been awarded to start the construction work in Padur on October 1, 2025. The government has also taken steps towards making the reserves of Phase-I commercial. Under an agreement between Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and ISPRL, ADNOC has received permission to use a 750,000 tonne cavern in Mangaluru.
India's total storage capacity – which also includes facilities owned by oil marketing companies – is currently enough to meet demand for about 74 days. Gopi reiterated that actual reserves are a changing figure, depending on stocks and actual consumption. And both these things do not remain stable. To reduce dependence on a single field, public sector oil and gas companies purchase crude oil from a variety of suppliers.
He further said that currently these PSEs (public sector companies) import crude oil from 41 countries. These include traditional suppliers of the Middle East – such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and Qatar – as well as new suppliers like America, Nigeria, Angola, Canada, Colombia, Brazil and Mexico.
