India has ample crude oil reserves: Pradhan

New Delhi, May 8

Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said India is currently holding 18 per cent of the annual requirement of energy, thus indicating that the government has ensured ample reserves of crude at its disposal to easily meet all requirements in the near future. “This is the maximum capacity we could hold and we are holding that,” Pradhan told Daniel Yergin, author and one of the world’s noted authority on the politics of oil.

Pradhan said India’s strategic storage capacity of 53 lakh tonne would be full by mid-May. Apart from that, oil companies have booked and paid for 70 lakh metric tonnes of floating oil in their contracts. There is domestic online capacity in crude oil or products of around 250 lakh metric tonnes. — TNS