Plans for Odisha oil reserve caught attributable to unlawful quarrying| India Information
A quest so as to add capability to India’s strategic oil reserves –– a vital fallback in occasions of warfare and provide disruptions like the present shutdown on the Strait of Hormuz –– has been hanging hearth in Odisha’s Jajpur district for over a 12 months.
On April 8, 2025, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Odisha authorities and the Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Restricted (ISPRL) for a four-million-metric-tonne crude oil storage advanced at Dankari Hills in Jajpur. Nevertheless, until now, the land has nonetheless not been handed over to ISPRL, a particular function car below the Union ministry of petroleum and pure gasoline, which is executing the venture. The rationale: unlawful stone quarrying that has continued on the earmarked web site for months, doubtlessly undermining its viability.
Officers within the state trade division admitted that large-scale extraction of blackstone, used extensively in street development, has continued unabated within the space with greater than a dozen such quarries working within the venture space. “The district administration is meant to handover the realm to ISPRL, however they haven’t been capable of take any concrete steps on this regard,” mentioned a senior trade division official. HT has additionally reviewed the sequence of communications between ISPRL and the state authorities over the matter through which the previous has expressed its concern over the delay on handover the land.
India’s current strategic petroleum reserves positioned at Visakhapatnam (1.33 million metric tonnes ), Mangaluru (1.5 million metric tonnes ), and Padur (2.5 million metric tonnes ), maintain a complete of 5.33 million metric tonnes of crude oil, in line with statements by petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri in Parliament. That is about 9.5 days of the nation’s wants or round 77 days of internet imports. ISPRL plans to extend the reserve capability to fifteen million tonnes over the following decade, in step with India’s ambition to hitch the Worldwide Power Company (IEA), which requires member nations to keep up crude shares equal to 90 days of consumption.
The Jajpur venture, together with a parallel facility in Padur, Karnataka, was designed below Section II of the strategic petroleum reserve programme to extend capability to 11.83 million metric tonnes, narrowing the hole with the IEA benchmark. Designed as underground rock caverns, the petroleum reserves are instantly related to close by refineries and increase the industrial shares maintained by oil corporations, serving as a vital cushion throughout provide disruptions. Officers within the state trade division admitted that the plan is now in limbo even because the Strait of Hormuz, via which roughly 20% of worldwide crude provide flows day by day, was shut by Iran after US and Israeli strikes killed its Supreme Chief.
ISPRL officers mentioned the company has deposited greater than ₹21 crore for 400 acres of land at Dankari Hills with the Industrial Infrastructure Improvement Company. But, a response to a Proper to Info (RTI) request, dated January 31, 2026, from the Jajpur district administration confirmed that no land has been transferred to ISPRL.
“We’ve got written repeatedly to district and state authorities since March 2025 searching for intervention. In a November 2025 letter to the Jajpur district Justice of the Peace, we warned that quarrying throughout the venture boundary will disturb the topographical integrity of the realm and may have hostile affect on the venture feasibility,” mentioned the ISPRL official, requesting anonymity. Final month, ISPRL wrote to Dharmasala MLA Liku Sahu searching for his intervention in stopping the quarrying of blackstone within the venture space because it is a matter of nationwide safety and power security.
Jajpur district collector Ambar Kar didn’t reply to calls in addition to messages from HT on why the land has not been handed over to ISPRL.