Of the 12,454 completions achieved last year, 9,000 of them came on land brought forward from that strategic reserve.

And it may well be that with so much else being squeezed in defence, our volunteers become ever more crucial in generating a strategic reserve against the unexpected.

With six out of eight refineries still on strike, supplies are coming from the strategic reserve and from imports.

If necessary, the government would draw on the country's strategic reserve of oil supplies, he said.

Some of the different categories of military reserves are: tactical reserve, operational reserve, strategic reserve.