Strategic Petroleum Reserves

A key outcome of the Prime Minister’s visit to the UAE and his meeting with the UAE President was not just additional LPG supplies, but also expanding the strategic petroleum reserves. The arrangement allows the UAE to store up to 30 million barrels of crude oil in India. 

A Strategic Collaboration Agreement was signed between Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). The agreement also covers strategic gas reserves in India and long-term Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) supply arrangements between the Indian Oil Corporation and the ADNOC. By having ADNOC within Indian facilities, India enhances the financing strength and the commercial viability of future reserve projects, while creating a long-term buffer against external shocks. 

Fujairah in the UAE is a major oil storage and bunkering hub, on the Gulf of Oman. The India-UAE energy framework also includes the possibility of Indian crude storage in Fujairah. With no early signs of a peace deal between the US and Iran, expanding strategic petroleum reserves is a prudent move. The Strait of Hormuz might get tough to navigate if the US and Israel launch a fresh attack against Tehran.  

India’s strategic petroleum reserve is a crude oil storage system created for emergency supply management. Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited manages the country’s strategic crude storage facilities. India’s operational strategic crude oil storage sites include Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Mangaluru in Karnataka, and Padur in Karnataka.

Proposed expansion projects have also been discussed for Chandikol in Odisha. Taking a cue from the UAE-India arrangement on the strategic petroleum reserve, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Russia, and Eurasian and Latin American countries should be approached for such arrangements. 

Critical Technology Collaboration

The next leg of the Prime Minister’s trip to Europe – the Netherlands – secured deals and arrangements that would enable collaboration in critical technology. The two countries taking forward their robust business partnership signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Partnership on Semiconductors and Related Emerging Technology, which provides the framework for enhanced cooperation in semiconductors, including in the areas of investment, research and talent exchange. 

A high point of the visit was the pact between Tata Electronics and Dutch multinational corporation ASML to support the semiconductor Fab in Dholera. This will be India’s first front-end semiconductor Fab.

It may be noted that India and the Netherlands have an ongoing cooperation in the field of science, technology, and innovation, focusing on launching public-private partnerships and connecting the expertise of governments, businesses, and knowledge institutions. 

A unique initiative has been launched to connect the Dutch Semicon Competence Centre to the Indian Semiconductor Mission (ISM), which aims to support and strengthen the semiconductor sector, specifically industries, startups, scale-ups, SMEs, and their suppliers.

A Memorandum of Cooperation was also adopted between Eindhoven University of Technology and University of Twente, and six leading Indian technical institutes (IISc Bangalore, IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Gandhinagar, IIT Guwahati, and IIT Madras) for a brain bridge in semiconductors and related technologies, with industry partnership from NXP, ASML, TATA and CG Semi. 

Indo-Dutch Ties

The Netherlands is the fourth largest source of FDI into India.

The Indo-Dutch economic partnership has been a success story that often does not make it to the headlines. The Netherlands is India’s largest merchandise export destination in Europe, and the third largest in the world (after the US and the UAE). In FY2024-25, India exported US$22.763 billion (₹192,118 crore) worth of goods to the Netherlands. The merchandise exports to the Netherlands account for 5.20% of India’s total merchandise exports.  

There are over 300 Dutch companies present in India, including major players such as Royal Philips, Signify, Akzo Nobel, DSM-Firmenich, and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, among others.

Similarly, there are over 300 Indian companies present in the Netherlands, including all the major IT companies such as TCS, HCLTech, Wipro, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, and Tata Steel.

Indian companies have made major acquisitions in the Netherlands, including OYO Hotels and Homes, the acquisition of Amsterdam-based vacation rental firm @Leisure Group in 2018, Tata Steel’s purchase of Anglo-Dutch ‘Corus’ in 2007, Ola Electric’s acquisition of Dutch electric scooter company ‘Etergo’ in 2020, Apollo Tyres’ acquisition of Dutch tyre maker Vredestein Banden in 2009, Aspire Systems’ acquisition of Dutch-Polish software solutions firm Goyello in 2018, and the purchase of the Dutch company Dutch Vaccine Institute – NVI (Bilthoven Biologicals - BBio) by the Serum Institute in 2012.  

India and the Netherlands must now leverage the MoU on the India-Netherlands Partnership on Semiconductors and Related Emerging Technologies to explore new avenues of cooperation to build trusted and resilient supply chains through collaboration between the semiconductor industry of both India and the Netherlands. 

They must also expand cooperation on research and development in emerging technologies, forging technology value chains partnerships in both countries, in sectors such as artificial intelligence, photonics, quantum, and cybersecurity.

(The writer is a commentator on geopolitics and geoeconomics. Views expressed are personal.)