Govt to invite bids for private participation in new strategic oil reserves

The government will soon invite bids from private energy firms to set up two new strategic crude oil reserves under the public-private participation (PPP) mode where it may also provide viability gap funding (VGF) to incentivise private sector investors, two officials said.

The Cabinet approved the proposal to set up commercial-cum-strategic crude oil reserves earlier this month, paving the way for setting up of two new projects that can store 6.5 million tonnes (MT) of crude oil, which will be sufficient to meet country’s fuel requirements for 11.5 days, the officials said, requesting anonymity.