India’s Strategic Oil Reserves facility at Padur in Karnataka State, at present, India has a total reserve capacity of 5 Million Metric Tonnes (MMT)

The proposal envisages building a 4-million tonne (MT) storage at Chandikhole in Odisha and 2.5 MT storage at Padur in Karnataka. The cost and timelines of the new facilities will be worked out once engineering details are completed

NEW DELHI: The government on Wednesday gave in-principle approval to the proposal, announced in the 2017-18 budget, to build two more underground crude oil storage with private partnership to raise emergency stockpile cover by 12 days to 22 days.

The proposal envisages building a 4-million tonne (MT) storage at Chandikhole in Odisha and 2.5 MT storage at Padur in Karnataka, finance minister Piyush Goyal told reporters. This is Phase-II of the country’s strategic storage plan, first drawn up during the NDA government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The cost and timelines of the new facilities will be worked out once engineering details are completed. Under the Rs 4,098 crore Phase-I, India commissioned underground storage of 1.33 MT at Visakhapatnam and 1.5 MT at Mangalore.

Another 2.5 MT at Padur is still being readied. Phase-I was supposed to cover around 20 days of consumption. But with growth in consumption, it’s estimated to last for 10 days, going by 2016-17 consumption data.

The additional 6.5 MT will provide an extra supply of about 12 days.