India's petroleum ministry has sought Rs 150 billion ($2.2 billion) from the finance ministry to build the second phase of the country's strategic petroleum reserves, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Thursday.
Strategic storage reserves are underground rock caverns used to store crude oil that can be used in case of a supply cut-off to a country.
India already has strategic crude oil storages facilities in Visakhapatnam, Mangalore and Padur. They are in addition to storages of crude oil and petroleum products with the oil companies.
India imports 80 per cent of its crude needs and has traditionally relied on the Middle East for heavy, sour oil supplies and West Africa for lighter, sweet crude.
In 2015, Iran continued to be India's seventh-biggest source for crude oil although its share in the overall imports declined to 5.2 per cent from 7.3 per cent a year earlier.
In 2015, India imported 787,700 barrels per day (bpd) of African oil with the continent accounting for about a fifth of India's overall imports from 16.7 per cent a year ago.
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