India claims it took advantage of the slump in the crude oil market during Lockdown and saved Rs 5,000 crore

 

India took advantage of a slump in crude oil prices during the lockdown period in the month of April and May and saved Rs 5,000 crore by filling the existing strategic petroleum reserves when the prices were at a historic low level, Claimed Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Sept 29

“Taking the advantage of low crude oil prices in April and May 2020, we filled the existing strategic petroleum reserves with 16 million barrels of crude oil, resulting in saving of over INR 5000 crore for the Government,” the Minister said.

He said further to improve energy security in the hydrocarbons sector, the government is gradually improving crude and petroleum products storage capacity from the existing 74 days of national consumption to 90 days.

Ministry has already invited participation of companies in the development of 6.5 MMT of crude storage capacities at Chandikol and Padur in the next commercial-cum-strategic reserve programme. “We are also exploring overseas crude storage facilities in the US and other commercially viable locations”, he added.

He said to promote oil and gas production at the domestic level, reinvigorating policy reforms are already underway–be it Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP), Discovered Small Field (DSF) Policy, Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP), and exploitation of Unconventional Hydrocarbons. He talked about policy reforms including shifting of focus from ‘Revenue’ to ‘Production’’ maximization, marketing including pricing freedom for the gas from difficult Areas, and for new discoveries from March last year, as well as for CBM Gas. “We are also actively prompting participation of global oil majors to increase their domestic oil & gas exploration”, the minister added.