ONGC to develop petroleum reserve facility in Karnataka

New Delhi, July 10: For the first time, State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will fund a strategic crude storage facility as it has approved development of a 1.75 million metric tonne (MMT) petroleum reserve at Mangaluru, Karnataka.

In a regulatory filing, the company said its board has accorded in-principle approval for the Phase-I expansion of the Mangaluru strategic petroleum reserve project, along with associated facilities, in line with directions from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

The project will add 1.75 MMT of storage capacity to India’s strategic petroleum reserve network, managed by Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL).

India currently has 5.33 MMT of strategic crude storage across underground caverns at Visakhapatnam, Mangaluru and Padur, sufficient to meet approximately 9.5 days of the country’s crude oil requirement based on 2019-20 consumption patterns.

The development assumes greater significance as the conflict in West Asia has severely impacted regular imports of petroleum products from that region.

India is heavily dependent on import of petroleum products from West Asia. (BVI)