Trading on a buffer: Can India afford to commercialise its fuel reserves?

India's decision to commercialise half its strategic petroleum reserves could jeopardise its energy security

Can’t India, a $2.7-trillion economy aspiring to be $5 trillion, afford to store $1 billion worth of oil as a buffer towards energy security? Or, can India, surrounded by hostile neighbours and dependent on imported crude afford to commercialise its energy security? And, if so, what is strategic about the Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPRs)?

It is unclear if the government thought through these issues before taking a decision to commercialise half of its paltry SPRs. What it rather needs to do is to build capacity fast and grow stocks to a comfortable level before considering trade, especially given the fact that