India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp will reserve half of its planned 1.75 million metric tonnes (about 13 million barrels) oil storage facility to meet the country's strategic needs, junior oil minister Suresh Gopi told lawmakers. According to the latest government statement to Parliament, ONGC will reserve half of the 1.75 million-tonne Mangaluru storage for India's strategic petroleum reserves, while the remaining capacity will be available for commercial use. As per the minister's written reply to the Rajya Sabha, the project is being developed by ONGC and will be fully funded by the state-owned company. The allocation is part of India's broader expansion of its Strategic Petroleum Reserve capacity with private participation.
ONGC, India's top oil explorer, last month announced plans to build the strategic petroleum reserve at Mangaluru in Karnataka state, where its Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals subsidiary operates a refinery with capacity of 300,000 barrels per day. The facility will be strategically located near existing infrastructure to enhance energy security and crude storage capabilities.
Indian rules allow commercial use of a part of the existing SPR storage built at three locations - Mangaluru, Padur and Vizag - in southern India with 5.33 million tonnes of capacity. According to the government statement, these storage facilities are managed by the government-owned Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL). MRPL has already leased half of the 1.5 million tonnes Mangaluru SPR capacity, demonstrating the growing demand for strategic storage facilities. India currently has the capacity to store crude oil and petroleum products to meet 74 days of its net crude import needs, including inventories in refinery tanks, offshore facilities and its 35,000 km pipeline network.
India plans to build about 4 million tonnes of strategic storage at Chandikhol in the eastern state of Odisha and a new 2.5 million tonnes facility at Padur in southern India in collaboration with private companies. The government in July 2021 approved the establishment of two additional commercial-cum-strategic petroleum reserve facilities with a total storage capacity of 6.5 million tonnes in Odisha and Karnataka. ISPRL has acquired the land for the Chandikhol project, which is estimated to cost ₹9,000 crore ($944.44 million). The minister indicated that there is a continuous assessment of new sites for establishment of additional SPRs, though no specific timeline was provided for achieving 90 days of crude oil storage capacity.
