NEW DELHI: Drawing lessons from the disruption in energy supplies because of the West Asia conflict, govt has asked oil marketing companies to work on creating a 30-day strategic reserve of LPG.Petroleum ministry joint secretary Sujata Sharma said the reserve would be over and above the 45-day rolling stock maintained by oil retailers to meet the demand for both domestic and commercial gas cylinders.Though India has ramped up domestic LPG production and diversified supplies from US, Norway, Canada and Algeria, building a strategic reserve to deal with such crises has now become imperative.“We are working for crude (reserve) also. A 30-day reserve for LPG is our medium- to long-term strategy for securing key energy supplies,” Sharma said.India has nearly 1.4 lakh tonne of LPG reserves in two underground caverns at Mangaluru and Visakhapatnam. Before the conflict, the country’s daily LPG consum-ption was estimated at 80,000 tonne. It has now come down to 72,000 tonne due to demand management measures and seasonal variations.
