The reason why Modi has demanded that Indian citizens tighten their fossil fuel consumption is because India has @ no strategic reserves, certainly nothing related to its enormous size and appetite for crude. By contrast China holds an estimated 1.4 billion barrels of strategic crude oil reserves, larger than the combined strategic inventories of the US, Japan, OECD Europe, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Iran, the UAE, and India. The US ranks second with a 413 million barrel reserve chest. Japan is third with 263 million barrels and imports 96% of its crude oil. But India, with the exact same imports dependent weakness as Japan, has a mere 21 million barrels”less than 8% of Japan's inventory. Mind you, these statistics are from December 2025, before the US waged war on Iran. The Petroleum Minister's statement in March 2026 that India's petroleum reserves were filled to 64% capacity was misleading, for that would mean that India had added 7% more inventory when the rest of the world was facing serious shrinkage in the wake of the Hormuz shutdown. It is quite likely that India's current oil reserves must be even lower than 21 million barrels.
