Strategic Petroleum Reserve

A Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is a government-maintained emergency inventory of crude oil and/or petroleum products stored in secure underground facilities, salt caverns, or above-ground tanks, designed to provide a buffer against sudden disruptions in oil supply caused by geopolitical conflicts, natural disasters, pipeline failures, or export embargoes. Unlike commercial stocks held by industry for operational continuity, SPRs are a strategic national asset — released only under exceptional circumstances on government authorization. The concept of strategic petroleum reserves gained global traction after the 1973 Arab oil embargo, when OPEC's export restrictions caused oil prices to quadruple and severely damaged Western economies. The International Energy Agency (IEA), established in 1974, mandates that all member countries maintain SPRs equivalent to at least 90 days of net petroleum imports. The United States maintains the world's largest government-controlled SPR — approximately 700 million barrels stored in salt caverns along the Gulf of Mexico coast. India is not an IEA member but has been building its own SPR programme under the Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited (ISPRL), a special purpose vehicle under the Petroleum Ministry. India has three underground rock cavern facilities: Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh, 1.33 million metric tonnes), Mangaluru (Karnataka, 1.5 million metric tonnes), and Padur (Karnataka, 2.5 million metric tonnes) — total capacity of 5.33 million metric tonnes, equivalent to approximately 9.5 days of India's crude import requirement. India imports 85-88% of its crude oil needs, making energy security a critical strategic concern. Phase II expansion plans include Chandikhol (Odisha) and Padur expansion — targeting additional 6.5 MMT capacity.

• 1 India's SPR facilities: Visakhapatnam (1.33 MMT), Mangaluru (1.5 MMT), Padur (2.5 MMT) — total 5.33 MMT, ~9.5 days of import cover.
• 2 Operated by ISPRL (Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited) — a SPV under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
• 3 IEA 90-day requirement: IEA member states must hold 90 days of net petroleum import cover — India (not an IEA member) holds only ~9.5 days.
• 4 India became an IEA 'Association Country' in March 2017 — observer status, not full membership with mandatory stockholding obligations.
• 5 US SPR: world's largest — ~350-600 million barrels (size varies with releases) stored in salt caverns in Texas and Louisiana.
• 6 India-US coordinated SPR release (November 2021): India released ~5 million barrels from SPR alongside US, Japan, South Korea, UK — coordinated action to cool oil prices.
• 7 Phase II expansion: Chandikhol (Odisha, 4 MMT) and Padur expansion (2.5 MMT) — being developed with private participation.

In November 2021, India coordinated with the United States, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom in a rare simultaneous release of strategic petroleum reserves to counter the OPEC+ decision to maintain supply cuts despite recovering post-COVID demand. India released approximately 5 million barrels from its Visakhapatnam and Mangaluru facilities — the first such strategic release in India's history. This demonstrated that India's SPR, though modest in volume, can be deployed as a diplomatic and market-stabilisation tool in concert with major energy-consuming nations.