Will India Have Enough Oil If Iran War Escalates? Oil Reserves At A Glance

The US-Israel war on Iran getting into its stride now, India is calculating its oil reserves in case of a possible crisis. On Saturday - after the day of US-Israel airstrike on Iran in which its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei died -- Iran's state media said it has shut the Strait of Hormuz, the transit point for a fifth of global oil and gas supplies. 

Major global shipping lines have suspended transits through the waterway and on Sunday, an oil tanker sailing it near Oman faced missile attacks.

Officials though, said India is unlikely to face any near-term disruption in oil supplies from the closure.

Early in February, 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... Together, if you look at the reserves in our caverns and what is held by our refineries and our floating platforms at our ports and our products, it comes to 74 days. Ideally, it should be 90 days. I feel as the minister, safe with something at 74 days. But we can consider raising it going forward," Puri had said.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserves facilities in the country can last around 9.5 days.  In addition, the storage capacity of crude oil and petroleum products available with oil marketing companies can provide an estimated stock of 67 days.

In an exclusive interview with NDTV, oil economist and former Planning Commission member Kirit Parekh said if the war between the US, Israel, and Iran continues for a long time, "India should increase crude oil imports from Russia to mitigate the pressure of rising crude oil prices".

If crude oil becomes more expensive by $1 per barrel in the international market, it could increase India's oil import costs by $1.4 billion. Gas prices will also go up since India imports approximately 50% of its gas needs from abroad.

So, he said, "India could argue with the US that the war in the middle-east was started by the United States, and so to cope with the pressure of rising crude oil prices, India has become compelled to import more crude oil from Russia to meet its energy needs".