Indian Oil Corporation has doubled its spot buying of crude for the month of March keeping in view the possibility of a US attack on Iraq which might send oil prices soaring.

"Normally, IOC buys around 2,50,000 tonnes of crude every month of West Asia origin, but for March loading it has doubled the spot buying to 5,00,000 tonnes," an IOC official told Business Standard.

Sources from oil trading firms confirmed that for March loading, IOC has contracted around 6-7 million barrels of sweet crude oil mainly of Nigerian origin in its spot tender and around 4-5 million barrels of sour crude oil, mainly of West Asia/ Red Sea origin.

“This is against the average figure of around 5-6 million barrels from Nigeria and 2 million barrels from West Asia,” said a source from an oil trading firm.

IOC, which accounts for almost two-third of the total crude imported in the country, does spot buying of 15-20 per cent of its total  crude purchases.

IOC officials say that the oil major is looking at a 15 day storage capacity for crude and 30-45 days for petroleum products.

"As far as supplies are concerned, we expect no problem at all," an IOC official said. "In any case, we import a very small amount of crude from Iraq, most of our supplies are from other sources," he said.

Sources say that oil marketing companies are toying with the idea of cut runs (not running the refinery at a 100 per cent capacity) in their refineries so as to produce lesser petroleum products and increase the inventory levels for crude.

"The cut runs can easily bring up the storage of crude from 15 days to about 20-22 days," said an official.

On the other hand, experts say that the excess supply of petroleum products will also go in the country's favour in the event of a war.

"Since we have a surplus of products, we can offset the increase in crude price for a good product price," said the official.