New Delhi: State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will set up a 1.75-million-metric-tonne (MMT) storage facility at Mangaluru in Karnataka, with half of its capacity reserved for strategic storage and the rest for the company’s commercial operations, the government told Parliament Monday.
In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha by MP Jaggesh, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Suresh Gopi said the project would be funded by ONGC.
The minister did not specify whether the storage facility would be exclusively for crude oil or would also include liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG).
In a written reply to a separate question, Gopi also updated Parliament on the proposed 4-MMT strategic petroleum reserve at Chandikhol in Odisha.
He said Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve Limited (ISPRL), the special purpose vehicle responsible for developing India’s strategic petroleum reserves, has acquired the land and registered it in its name.
The project, estimated to cost around Rs 9,000 crore, has moved to the next stage with a draft Request for Proposal (RFP) and Concession Agreement being finalised.
“The project is expected to boost GDP [Gross Domestic Product] of the state of Odisha and increase other economic activities, including ancillary industries, in the region. As per preliminary assessments, the project has potential to generate employment for about 4000 persons per day during construction phase and about 150 persons per day during the operational phase,” the minister stated in the reply.
The government had approved the development of two commercial and strategic petroleum reserve facilities under the public-private partnership (PPP) model in July 2021 as part of Phase 2 of India’s strategic petroleum reserve programme.
The projects include the 4-MMT facility at Chandikhol, Odisha, and a 2.5-MMT facility at Padur, Karnataka, taking the total Phase 2 capacity to 6.5 MMT.
Under Phase 1, ISPRL has already established strategic crude oil storage facilities with a combined capacity of 5.33 MMT at Visakhapatnam (1.33 MMT), Mangaluru (1.5 MMT) and Padur (2.5 MMT).
The government also said India has extensive crude oil and petroleum product storage capacity spread across its energy supply chain, including offshore facilities, refineries, terminals and a pipeline network of more than 35,000 km.
“This is in the form of above-ground storage tanks, pipeline systems, terminal tankages, offshore storage, refinery tankage etc,” the minister stated.
He added, “Collectively, India holds a national capacity for storage of crude oil and petroleum products equivalent to meet 74 days of its net crude import requirement.”
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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