India has agreed to release 5 million barrels of crude oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserves. This release will happen in parallel and in consultation with other major global energy consumers including the USA, China, Japan and the Republic of Korea.
- This is the first time that India, which stores 5.33 million tonnes or about 38 million barrels of crude oil in underground caverns at three locations on the east and west coast, is releasing stocks for such purposes.
- The US also said it would release 50 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves in a coordinated move with China, India, South Korea, Japan and Britain to cool prices after OPEC+ producers rebuffed calls for more crude.
- In a bid to control inflationary pressures, Government of India had reduced the ‘central excise duty’ on petrol and diesel by Rs. 5 and Rs. 10 respectively on 3 November 2021. It was followed by reduction in VAT on fuel by many state governments.
India’s strategic petroleum reserves
- 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.
GS TIMES IAS PRELIMS 2022 CURRENT AFFAIRS BASICS DAILY ONLINE TEST SERIES: HINDI AND ENGLISH
CLICK HERE DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS QUIZ FOR STATE CIVIL SERVICES
