India to store cheap oil in USA

Amidst a supply glut of cheap oil and the local storage being utilized to its optimum capacity, India, the world’s third biggest oil consumer and importer, is looking at storing some low priced U.S. oil in facilities there. Last month, Australia too had undertaken a similar move and said it would build up an emergency oil stockpile by buying crude to store in the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to capitalise on the low oil prices.

Union oil minister Shri Dharmendra Pradhan stated, “We are exploring some possibility if we can store some of our investment in a different country … we are exploring the possibility in the USA if we can store some of the low priced oil.” He also said that stored oil and products amounted to about 20% of India’s annual needs.

The minister added that the country had already filled its 5.33 million tonnes of strategic storage and parked about 8.5-9 million tonnes of oil on ships in different parts of the world, primarily in the Gulf. The country plans to build new strategic storage to expand capacity by 6.5 million tonnes and is eager to have participation from global investors in building these facilities.