Global crude oil prices are plummeting to historic lows. On Monday, the benchmark North Sea Brent was at $33.52, roughly half of what it was a year ago, but India’s storage tanks are only a little over half full.
India has the capacity to hold 5.33 million tonnes of crude oil, in three underground cavern systems at Visakhapatnam, Mangaluru and Padur (Karnataka), built at a cost of ₹4,000 crore by the government-owned Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL).
HPS Ahuja, CEO and MD of the company, told BusinessLine on Tuesday that 56 per cent of the storage capacity has been filled with crude; the other 44 per cent is being filled in, for which orders have been placed.
