The Hindu Business Line : Mangalore strategic oil reserve likely to be ready by 2012

Mangalore, May 28 The Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL) – a wholly owned subsidiary of Oil Industry Development Board – has begun the work on constructing strategic oil reserve in underground rock cavern in Mangalore and plans to commission it by mid-2012.

In an informal chat with newspersons on the sidelines of the inauguration of civil works for the Mangalore project here on Wednesday, Mr S. Vijayananda, Chief Manager, ISPRL-Mangalore Project Office, said underground rock cavern storage is the storage of crude or other hydrocarbon deep inside the earth in large cavities created in good quality rock strata.

The proposed Mangalore facility is expected to store around 1.5 million tonnes of crude oil. ISPRL has acquired around 82.5 acres from Mangalore SEZ Ltd for this purpose. The cost of underground civil work has been estimated at Rs 403.5 crore. Engineers India Ltd is the project management consultant.

Disruption indemnity

Mr Vijayananda said the Mangalore facility is likely to be completed by the first quarter of 2012.

He said the Government of India has decided to set up 5 million tonnes of strategic crude oil reserves in underground rock caverns in Visakhapatnam, Mangalore and Padur village in Udupi district. The Padur facility will be designed to hold 2.5 million tonnes of crude oil and the Visakhapatnam facility will hold 1.33 million tonnes of crude oil.

The storage of Visakhapatnam, Mangalore and Padur facilities will provide a 14-day cover of crude oil for the country in case of supply disruptions.

Asked about the reasons for choosing these three locations, he said they were chosen because they were strategic and safe. Added to this, the geographical strata of these locations are suitable for the construction of underground caverns.

Mr A.G. Pai, Chief Operating Officer of Mangalore SEZ Ltd, inaugurated the civil works.

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