Economy · 29 Aug 2026

strategic petroleum reserve India

Consider the following statements regarding India's strategic fuel storage infrastructure:

  1. India's Phase I strategic crude reserve capacity is sufficient to meet roughly 9.5 days of demand
  2. India currently has zero operational underground storage capacity for natural gas
  3. India's Phase I strategic crude reserve is currently utilised at close to its full 100% capacity
A1 and 2 only
B2 and 3 only
C1 and 3 only
D1, 2 and 3
This question is based on: India's $42-Billion Fuel Reserve Plan Has a Storage Problem, Not a Storage Shortage
Take this in full test mode → Instructions for 29 Aug 2026
About this question

Why in news

A reported $42-billion plan to add 41 MT of strategic crude, LNG and LPG storage has been announced, but the actual bottleneck lies in deliverability infrastructure and unfilled existing capacity rather than a shortage of storage space itself.

Why for UPSC

UPSC likes to test the gap between an announced capacity figure and its real utilisation - here, distinguishing "storage capacity built" from "fuel actually stored and deliverable," a distinction easy to miss on a surface reading.

Prelims summary

India's Phase I strategic crude reserve (5.33 MT) covers about 9.5 days of demand but runs at only 63-64% utilisation. LPG storage is minimal (0.14 MT) and natural gas has zero operational underground storage.

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