India to build its 1st oil storage facility soon

To insulate itself from oil supply disruptions, India will build its first strategic oil storage facility by January,
Union Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily has said on September 28. India, which is 79 per cent dependent on imports to meet its crude oil needs, is building underground storages at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Mangalore and Padur in Karnataka to store about 5.33 million tonne of crude oil, the Minister said.

This is enough to meet nation’s oil requirement for 13-14 days, Moily said. The storage at Visakhapatnam is expected to be commissioned in January 2014. Visakhapatnam facility would have the capacity to store 1.33 million tonne of crude oil in underground rock caverns. Huge underground cavities, almost ten storey tall and approximately 3.3 km long are being built, the Minister added.

Moily stated that a similar facility in Mangalore will have a capacity of 1.55 million tonne and would be mechanically completed by March 2014. A 2.5-million tonnes storage at Padur, near Mangalore, would be completed by end of current fiscal. With the commissioning of Visakhapatnam storage, India will join nations like the US, Japan and China that have strategic reserves, the Minister stated.