India and South Africa Plan Expansions to Strategic Oil Reserves

com reported that India and South Africa are expanding their strategic petroleum reserves after the 32 IEA member countries released 400 million barrels of oil and refined products in March. The United States accounted for 172 million barrels of that total under the Trump administration.

That release followed the 180 million barrels drawn by the Biden administration during the energy crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine.

India imports more than 80 percent of its oil. Its state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp plans to build a 1.75 million metric ton facility, equal to roughly 13 million barrels, in the southern coastal city of Mangalore. The existing national stockpile managed by Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd across Mangalore, Padur, and Visakhapatnam holds 5.33 million metric tons, or about 39 million barrels, enough for eight to nine days of net demand.

India’s overall refining capacity stands at approximately 5.2 million barrels per day. Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited runs a 300,000 barrel-per-day plant nearby. Under Phase II of the national program, the government is constructing a 4 million metric ton underground cavern at Chandikhol in Odisha and a 2.5 million metric ton facility at Padur in Karnataka.

Those projects will add 6.6 million barrels, more than doubling government emergency storage. India’s domestic refining industry already holds 64 days of oil inventories. IEA members must maintain stocks equal to at least 90 days of the previous year’s average daily net imports.

South Africa’s Department of Mineral Resources and Energy published a draft policy to scale up reserves. The plan targets a 36 million barrel system that would cover 60 to 90 days of emergency stocks.