India is broadening its energy security efforts beyond crude stockpiling, focusing on strategic reserves, offshore exploration, gas infrastructure, and coal gasification, signalling a major policy shift to enhance domestic production and cut reliance on imports.
India’s energy security push is moving well beyond the traditional stockpiling of crude, as New Delhi broadens policy support across strategic reserves, offshore drilling, gas infrastructure and coal gasification. According to NDTV Profit, the latest measures could lift capital spending by state-run energy companies, particularly Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, while helping to reduce dependence on imports.
At the centre of the new approach is a deeper commitment to strategic storage. Citi said the government is examining a third petroleum reserve, while ONGC has been told to develop a 1.75 million tonne storage facility that could cost about Rs150 billion. The brokerage also warned that inventory management remains an important issue for fuel retailers, noting that cumulative LPG under-recoveries had crossed Rs590 billion by July 2026.
The policy shift is being reinforced by a wider production drive. In July, the Cabinet approved the Samudra Manthan National Offshore Exploration Scheme with an outlay of Rs84,084 crore, aimed at accelerating seismic surveys, deepwater drilling and offshore infrastructure. The government said the programme is intended to add more than 600 million metric tonnes of oil equivalent to reserves and support domestic output over the longer term.
Other measures are aimed at broadening the fuel mix and strengthening transport networks. Government-backed incentives for coal and lignite gasification, first approved separately with a financial outlay of Rs37,500 crore, are meant to cut import dependence for products such as LNG, urea, ammonia and methanol. Citi said the wider package now amounts to a multi-pronged energy security strategy spanning crude storage, domestic production, gas adoption and upstream exploration, with ONGC, Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and GAIL among the likely beneficiaries.
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