2 min readNew DelhiMar 18, 2026 01:53 AM IST
The Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Gas has urged the ministry to “make every possible effort” to achieve the global standard of maintaining 90-day crude oil stock to safeguard the country against potential supply shocks and external uncertainties.
It also asked the ministry to explore the possibility of constructing more strategic reserve caverns across the country.
The recommendations are part of the seventh report of the Committee on demands for grants presented in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
The 31-member committee led by Raigad MP Sunil Dattatray Tatkare (NCP) has 21 Lok Sabha MPs and 10 from the Rajya Sabha as members.
With regard to Strategic Petroleum Reserve facilities, the committee noted a gap between the Budget Estimate (BE), Revised Estimate (RE) and the Actual Expenditure (AE) in the last three financial years with the actual expenditure standing at 75%, 45% and 47% of BE allocated in 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26, respectively.
The Committee noted that the ministry attributed the reduction in expenditure to factors such as non-deployment of planned security personnel, lower electricity and manpower costs, delays in deputation of staff, lower crude oil operational activities and delays in finalising the warehousing agreement with Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited.
“The Committee are of the opinion that given the strategic importance of crude oil reserves in strengthening the country’s energy security, such variations in budgeting merit closer examination … the Ministry may undertake a more realistic assessment of O&M requirements, particularly with regard to manpower deployment, security arrangements and operational agreements, so as to minimise wide variations between BE and RE,” it noted.
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It additionally urged the ministry to expedite pending operational arrangements and contractual agreements so that the infrastructure created under the Strategic Petroleum Reserve programme “is utilised efficiently and the budgetary allocations are optimally utilised”.
On the reasons furnished by the ministry, the Committee stated that in projects of strategic national importance, the allocated funds needed to be fully utilised and urged the ministry to “ensure better planning, timely execution and optimal utilisation of funds so that the objectives of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve programme are achieved within the stipulated timeframe”.
