Odisha Oil Reserve Project Stuck Amid Illegal Quarrying Chaos
Image Source: Internet
A critical oil reserve project in Odisha's Jajpur district has been stuck for over a year due to illegal stone quarrying on the earmarked site. The project aims to add capacity to India's strategic oil reserves, a crucial fallback during supply disruptions.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on April 8, 2025, between the Odisha government and the Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited (ISPRL) for a four-million-metric-tonne crude oil storage complex at Dankari Hills in Jajpur. However, the land has not been handed over to ISPRL due to ongoing illegal quarrying.
ISPRL officials have expressed concern over the delay, citing the potential impact on the project's viability. The district administration is supposed to hand over the area to ISPRL, but they have not taken any concrete steps. India's existing strategic petroleum reserves hold a total of 5.33 million metric tonnes of crude oil, which is about 9.5 days of the country's needs.
ISPRL plans to increase the reserve capacity to 15 million tonnes over the next decade, in line with India's ambition to join the International Energy Agency (IEA). The Jajpur project, along with a parallel facility in Padur, Karnataka, was designed to increase capacity to 11.83 million metric tonnes, narrowing the gap with the IEA benchmark.
Despite repeated warnings and requests for intervention, the land has not been transferred to ISPRL. The project is now in limbo, even as the Strait of Hormuz was shut by Iran after US and Israeli strikes killed its Supreme Leader.
