Discuss the vulnerabilities in India's energy-security architecture exposed by recent West Asia disruptions. Examine the adequacy of India's proposed strategic-fuel storage programme in addressing them.

India imports the bulk of its crude and a large share of its gas, mostly through West Asia and the Strait of Hormuz. The 2026 disruptions in the region revealed that its cushion — 5.33 MMT of strategic crude caverns at Visakhapatnam, Mangaluru and Padur [1] — is thin, narrow in fuel coverage, and weakly connected to delivery infrastructure.

Vulnerabilities exposed

• Shallow cover: Phase-I reserves give only a few days' import cover [1], far below the IEA's 90-day benchmark; Phase-II's 6.5 MMT at Chandikhol and Padur adds roughly 12 more days and is still under implementation on PPP mode [2][3].
• Crude-only architecture: India holds just two underground LPG caverns and no operating underground natural-gas storage, leaving cooking gas and power-sector gas supply unbuffered [4].
• Chokepoint concentration: heavy sourcing from West Asia means a single maritime chokepoint can simultaneously hit crude, LNG and LPG flows [4].
• Logistics, not just tankage: reserves are useless if shipping, pipelines, terminals and city-gas distribution cannot move them during a crisis [4].
• Fiscal-institutional gaps: ownership, financing and replenishment rules for a multi-fuel reserve remain unsettled [4].

Adequacy of the proposed programme

• Strengths: the plan to add about 28 MT crude, 9 MT LNG and 4 MT LPG over a decade would, for the first time, extend strategic storage beyond crude, targeting roughly two months' crude and LNG cover and six weeks of LPG [4] — a qualitative shift from tokenism to genuine buffering.
• Limits: it remains a proposal under inter-ministerial consideration, not sanctioned capacity [4]; costs are front-loaded and financing is undecided; LNG demands cryogenic technology beyond existing rock-cavern experience [4]; and past SPR phases show long execution lags [3].

Storage is necessary but not sufficient. India's energy security needs reserves matched with evacuation infrastructure, diversified sourcing, transparent financing and a clear release protocol — converting caverns into usable insurance and advancing the SDG-7 goal of affordable, reliable energy.