India is in a comfortable position in terms of crude oil and gas, government sources told NDTV today as the war in the middle-east that started with the US-Israel air strikes on Iran escalated. "We are in reasonably comfortable position as far as crude oil, LPG and LNGs are concerned. We have a stock of 25 days of reserve for crude oil and 25 days of products that is in transit," a source said.
Last month, oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri had told Rajya Sabha that India's strategic petroleum reserve can last 74 days to meet the demand arising out of any global turbulence.
"We calculate our reserves not only in caverns but also in our refineries," Puri had said. "Our reserves in the caverns are in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka and we are hoping to get started in Odisha soon," he had added.
Concern about a possible energy crisis spiked as Iran shut the Hormuz Strait, the transit point for one-fifth of global oil.
That possibility was underscored today by Ebrahim Jabbari, advisor to the chief commander of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who announced that Strait of Hormuz has been closed.
"Anyone who wants to pass will be destroyed by fire by our heroic and devoted forces in the Navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Army. They will definitely face a serious and decisive encounter if they try to enter this region," he said.
"We will also disable their pipelines in the region and will not allow oil to be exported from this region, putting them in a tight spot. Americans owe thousands of billions of dollars. They are thirsty for the region's oil. We won't let a drop of oil reach you," he added.
Iran had announced its intention to shut the strait on Sunday - hours after the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a chunk of the top military leadership was killed in the air strikes while attending a crucial meeting.
Since then, almost 90% of crude traffic has been choked. In place of the normal daily traffic of over 100 vessels, only three tankers could cross the strait on Sunday. On Monday, that number dwindled to one. At least six ships, including oil tankers, were hit while trying to cross the strait.
Currently, more than 700 tankers are stuck on both sides of the strait.
