Betul (Goa): After dropping a Rs 5,000 crore plan to fill parts of strategic oil storages, the government will lease out space in the underground rock caverns to domestic and international firms to store oil, a top executive said on Tuesday.
India Strategic Petroleum Reserve Ltd has built underground storages at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Mangalore and Padur in Karnataka to store 5.33 million tonnes of oil that can be used in any emergency situation like supply disruption or war.
UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) has already hired half of the 2.5 million tonnes storage capacity at Padur and 1.5 million tonnes facility at Mangalore. While the remaining 1.25 million tonnes at Padur has been filled by ISPRL, 0.75 million tonnes of vacant storage at Mangalore will be leased out, ISPRL CEO and Managing Director LR Jain told reporters on the sidelines of India Energy Week.
