Question : Strategic Petroleum Reserve Programme

(a) whether phase 2 of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) programme has
been started;
(b) if so, the details thereof including the total capacity of the current SPR,
location-wise and the time by which it is likely to be completed;
(c) the details of funds allocated and disbursed so far under phase 2 of SPR;
(d) whether there was any usage from the existing SPR, if so, the details thereof
along with the current storage of crude oil available under existing SPR,
location-wise;
(e) whether the Government is considering to include Petroleum products under
Goods and Services Tax (GST) and if so, the reasons for not including
Petroleum products under GST so far?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF PETROLEUM AND
NATURAL GAS
(SHRI RAMESWAR TELI)
(a) to (d): Under Phase I of strategic petroleum reserves (SPR) programme,
Government of India, through its Special Purpose Vehicle, Indian Strategic
Petroleum Reserve Limited (ISPRL), has established petroleum storage
facilities with total capacity of 5.33 Million Metric Tonnes (MMT) at 3
locations, namely (i) Vishakhapatnam (1.33 MMT), (ii) Mangaluru (1.5
MMT) and (iii) Padur (2.5 MMT), and all the storage facilities have been
filled with crude oil. The petroleum reserves established under Phase I are
strategic in nature and the crude oil stored in these reserves will be used
during an oil shortage event, as and when declared so by Government of
India.
Under Phase II of the petroleum reserve programme, Government has given
approval in July 2021 for establishing two additional commercial-cumstrategic
facilities with total storage capacity of 6.5 MMT underground
storages at Chandikhol (4 MMT) and Padur (2.5 MMT) on PPP mode. The
Request for Proposal for building these storage facilities is under
finalization. An amount of INR 210 crore was allocated in the budget of FY
2020-21 under Phase II for land acquisition, and same has been disbursed to
ISPRL.
(e) : As per the section 9(2) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act,
inclusion of excluded products in GST will require recommendation of the
GST Council. So far, the GST Council has not made any recommendation
for inclusion of petrol and diesel under GST.
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