NEW DELHI—India oil and gas companies are stocking crude and liquefied natural gas as Cyclone Phailin heads for India's east coast, federal oil minister Veerappa Moily said on Saturday.
Shipments are being diverted to safer locations, he said.
"The focus is on people and on protecting them," Mr. Moily said.
India imports three quarters of its fuel—much of it by sea. It sends its own crude to refineries on the east coast in tankers.
Cyclone Phailin is bearing down on the coast. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated. It is expected to make landfall later on Saturday in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh states.
Oil and gas companies including Reliance Industries Ltd. state-run Indian Oil Corp.and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. are "closely monitoring" the cyclone, Mr. Moily said.
Indian Oil—the largest refiner by capacity—has stopped building at a 300,000-barrels-a-day refinery at Paradip port in Orissa and shut a pipeline between two eastern ports, a senior executive said. Hindustan Petroleum will shut its 166,000-barrels-a-day refinery at Visakhapatnam if necessary, a senior executive said.
Reliance Industries operates the country's largest natural gas field on the east coast.
Mining in eastern India has also been disrupted by rain from the cyclone, an industry official said without elaborating.
