India received the first shipment of Iranian crude oil

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Iran shipped the first parcel of 260,000 mt crude oil to India for the country’s strategic reserves on the west coast, Platts informs citing Indian oil ministry officials.

India’s government plans to restock the country’s storages of strategic crude oil at three locations on the eastern and western coasts by as much as 39 million barrels. Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL) is responsible for setting up 11 million barrels of crude at Mangalore. The other two strategic reserve sites are at Visakhapatnam on the east coast and Padur in southern India's Kerala. The capacity of Visakhapatnam is estimated at 9.75 million barrels while Padur is expected to become the largest crude oil reserve storage with capacity of approximately 18.33 million barrels by the end of the year when it becomes operational.

According to the officials’ plan India may also purchase crude from Saudi Arabia and UAE to fill almost half of the Mangalore storage. The country needs strategic reserves to maintain at least 10-14 days of crude supply in case of any supply disruptions.