India builds strategic oil reserve facilities for Rs3,000 crore
16 Apr 2010
The Indian government has decided that the country should have strategic oil reserve facilities and is building three storage facilities at a cost of overRs3,000 crore with a total capacity of 37.4 million barrels that can take care of the nation's need for two weeks in case of an energy crisis.
These strategic storages would be in addition to the existing storages of crude oil and petroleum products with the oil companies and would serve as a cushion in response to external supply disruptions.
The construction of the proposed strategic storage facilities is being managed by Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited (ISPRL), a special purpose vehicle, owned by Oil Industry Development Board (OIDB).
The strategic oil reserve facilities, the first of their kind in the country, will be built at three locations in east and west coast of southern India as they would be easily accessible to the refining sector and would be in addition to the existing storages of crude oil and petroleum products held by the state-owned oil companies.
These storages would be built in underground rock caverns, which are considered the safest for storing hydrocarbons due to the lack of porosity in the rock formations.
The first is being built at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh with a capacity of 7.48 million barrels and will be completed by October 2011.
The second facility will be built at Mangalore in Karnataka by November 2012 with a capacity of 11.22 million barrels, while the third will be built by December 2012 nearly 42km away from Mangalore at Padur village in Udipi with a capacity of 18.7 million barrels.
Engineers India Limited (EIL) has been engaged as the Project Management Consultant for all three projects.