Strategic petroleum caverns to be ready by May

The Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve Ltd (ISPRL) will complete construction of the caverns in Mangaluru and Padur by March and May 2016 respectively. Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of State (IC) for Petroleum & Natural Gas said that Visakhapatnam cavern has been commissioned. ¨At present, there is existing tankage of 14.8 mt of crude oil and 13.7 mt of petroleum products in the country which provides coverage of approximately 63 days as per consumption. Strategic crude oil reserves of 5.33 mt being set up in phase-I and strategic crude oil reserve of 12.5 mt in phase-II will give coverage of approximately 12 days and 28 days respectively as per present consumption,¨ the Minister said.