Indian to establish Strategic Oil Reserves at 3 places
The Strategic Oil Reserves are being located at Visakhapatnam, Mangalore & Padur. The construction activities of Strategic Oil Reserves at Visakhapatnam have already begun. For the Mangalore Project, tenders for pre-qualification of bidders are being issued. Construction activities at Mangalore are expected to commence during the current financial year. As regards the Padur project, pre-construction activities such as survey for land acquisition, application for environmental clearances and pipeline route survey are in progress.
The three sites will together hold 5 Million Metric Ton (MMT) crude oil reserves, which is equivalent to about 14 days’ cover on consumption basis and 19 days’ cover on net import basis of 2006-07.
India has approved creation of a total of 15 MMT strategic storage capacity which will be done in phases, after completion of the ongoing first phase of 5 MMT capacity.
In conjunction with the tankage capacity available with the Public Sector Oil Companies, the Strategic Reserves will enable the country to deal with situations of short-term disruptions in supply of crude oil due to any emergency from a global event or in helping the supply position during/after a natural calamity.