China Has 1.4 billion Barrels Strategic Oil Inventory, India 21.4 million
US EIA estimates that China added an average of 1.1 million barrels per day of crude oil to strategic oil inventories in 2025, which reached nearly 1.4 billion barrels as of December 2025
Chennai: China has the largest strategic oil inventories of 1.4 billion barrels, much ahead of the US with 413 million barrels, as in December 2025. In contrast, India held a meagre 21.4 million barrels of crude oil stored in its Strategic Petroleum Reserve as of March 2025, as per the data of US Energy Information Administration.
US EIA estimates that China added an average of 1.1 million barrels per day of crude oil to strategic oil inventories in 2025, which reached nearly 1.4 billion barrels as of December 2025. Prior to the Iran conflict, preliminary government data indicate that China has continued building inventories in 2026.
China does not report data on its oil inventories, so we estimated China’s inventories based on imports, exports, refining, and oil inventory data from third-party and official sources. For this analysis, both China’s government-held and commercial inventories were considered to be part of strategic oil inventories.
The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) has a full storage capacity of 714 million barrels of crude oil. In December 2025, the SPR held 413 million barrels. SPR stocks increased to more than 415 million barrels in March, ahead of the coordinated release, and were about 409 million barrels as of April 10, 2026. The SPR is separate from the more than 400 million barrels of commercial crude oil inventories in the United States.
Japan holds the third-largest strategic oil inventories, reaching 263 million barrels in government-held inventories as of December 2025. These figures do not include international joint stockpiling inventories or commercial inventories held for strategic purposes.
OECD Europe held an estimated 179 million barrels in government inventories as of December 2025.
South Korea also holds substantial strategic oil inventories, averaging 79 million barrels during the same period in 2025.
According to the Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve (ISPRL), India had 21.4 million barrels of crude oil stored in its SPR as of March 2025. India also had an additional 3 million barrels of crude oil stored at its Mangalore site for the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) that is not considered part of India’s strategic reserve. An agreement between ADNOC and ISPRL allows ADNOC to use the site for commercial storage as long as 50 per cent of capacity is available for ISPRL’s strategic use.
Strategic inventory levels for the non-OECD countries like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Iran are difficult to determine. It is also difficult to distinguish between storage facilities used for commercial and strategic purposes.
Saudi Arabia held an average of 82 million barrels in on-land storage as of December 2025. These estimates do not include inventories reportedly held by Saudi Arabia in leased crude oil storage sites in South Korea and in Okinawa and the Kiire terminal in Japan. The UAE held an average of 34 million barrels of on-land oil inventories as of December 2025.
Iran held an average of 71 million barrels of on-land oil as of December 2025. Iran reportedly holds crude oil in bonded storage in China, though its current inventory levels are unknown.
