| 
- Britain is poised to cooperate with the US on a release of strategic oil stocks that is expected within months.
- This would assist in a bid to prevent fuel prices from choking economic growth in the US during an election year.
- Other countries may also be approached by Washington to contribute, Japan being one of them.
India (far behind):
India has begun the development of a
strategic crude oil reserve sized at 37,400,000 barrels (5,950,000 m3),
enough for two weeks of consumption. Petroleum stocks have been transferred
from the Indian Oil Corporation (IndianOil) to the Oil Industry Development
Board (OIDB). The OIDB then created the Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd
(ISPRL) to serve as the controlling government agency for the strategic
reserve.
The facilities are:
·
Mangalore, State of Karnataka.
Capacity of 11.22 million barrels (1,784,000 m3).
·
Padur village, Udipi in the state of
Karnataka. Capacity of 18.7 million barrels (2,970,000 m3).
·
Visakhapatnam, State of Andhra
Pradesh. Capacity of 7.48 million barrels (1,189,000 m3).
On 21st December 2011, it was
announced that India planned to greatly augment their crude reserve capacity to
132 million barrels by 2020, a senior oil ministry official stated.
Present Status:
On 15th, March 2012, The Minister
of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Shri R.P.N. Singh informed that as on 1.4.2011, recoverable reserves of crude oil
in the country is assessed at 757.4 million metric tonne (MMT) by Oil and
Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (ONGC), Oil India Ltd. (OIL) and Private/Joint
venture companies. These reserves are continuously undergoing change on account
of accretion of new reserves as a result of success in exploration and due to
production on a continuous basis.
Further, in view of the growth in the
economy, indigenous production of crude oil is not adequate for the energy
needs of the country at present, the Minister added.
He further stated
that the peak of crude oil production have been estimated and reported
differently over the time. He also said that International Energy Agency in
World Energy Outlook, 2011says that “Proven reserves of oil increased to 1.47
trillion barrels at the end of 2010 according to the Oil and Gas Journal or 48
years production at existing level. Remaining recoverable resources are
estimated to be much larger and could reach nearly 5.5 trillion barrels.”
The Minister stressed
that in order to provide momentum to exploration and production in the country, Government has
adopted multi-prong strategy which inter-alia includes:
(i) increasing
hydrocarbon exploration and production in the country,
(ii) Development of
unconventional sources of hydrocarbon and
(iii) Acquisition of overseas oil and
gas assets by Indian companies.
He also informed that the
Government is setting up the underground strategic storage in the form of rock
cavern with total storage capacity of 5.33 MMT at 3 locations viz., Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and one each in
Mangalore & Padur in Karnataka. The projects are expected to be
commissioned in a phased manner from April, 2013 onwards. The break-up of
strategic oil reserves capacity is as under:
Sl. No.
|
Location
|
Capacity (MMT)
|
1
|
Vishakhapatnam
|
1.33
|
2
|
Mangalore
|
1.50
|
3
|
Padur
|
2.50
|
In addition,
feasibility study for about 12.5 MMT strategic oil reserves is in progress in
the states of Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Odisha,” he added.
