Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday said that the Indian refiners are making use of the oil price crash opportunity and have stored about 32 million tonnes of oil in tanks, pipelines and on ships.

The stocking of crude oil is reportedly being done to ease the burden on the nation’s import bill.

Being the world’s third-biggest oil importer, India imports over 80 per cent of its oil requirements from overseas markets and has an annual refining capacity of about 250 million tonnes.

The country is making use of the floating storage as all its onshore options have been filled to the brim.

The refiners have stored 7 million tonnes of oil in floating storage and 25 million tonnes in pipelines and storage tanks as oil prices plunged, said Mr Pradhan.

The reports suggest that some of the state refiners’ excess oil have been diverted to fill the 5.03 million tonne strategic petroleum reserves (SPRs).

This has been done to help companies which are struggling to find storage vessels avoid charges for delays in offloading fresh cargo deliveries.

‘India can meet around 20% of its domestic demand by storing low-priced priced crude oil,’ Pradhan said. He further added that fuel demand would recover as economic activity picks up due to relaxations in the coronavirus lockdown.

The minister is hopeful that as the country prepares to exit the lockdown, activities would boost demand which in turn would help revive the economy

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