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The Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve Ltd (ISPRL) will complete construction of the caverns in Mangaluru and Padur by March and May 2016 respectively.
This information was given to the Rajya Sabha by Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Petroleum & Natural Gas, on Wednesday in a written reply. Pradhan also informed the Rajya Sabha that Visakhapatnam cavern has been commissioned.
“At present, there is existing tankage of 14.8 million tonne of crude oil and 13.7 million tonne of petroleum products in the country which provides coverage of approximately 63 days as per consumption. Strategic crude oil reserves of 5.33 million tonne being set up in phase-I and strategic crude oil reserve of 12.5 million tonne in phase-II will give coverage of approximately 12 days and 28 days respectively as per present consumption,” the Minister said.
Under phase-I storage capacity of 5.33 million tonne at three locations is being set up which includes Visakhapatnam (1.33 million tonne), Mangaluru (1.5 million tonne) and Padur (2.5 million tonne).
Detailed Project Reports have been prepared for establishing additional crude oil reserves of 12.5 million tonne under phase-II at Chandikhol (3.75 million tonne), addition 2.5 million tonne at Padur, Rajkot (2.5 million tonne) and Bikaner (3.75 million tonne).
Meeting rising demandTo another question on the country’s oil demand, Pradhan said that the demand is expected to grow by 6 million barrels per day to 9.8 million barrels per day by 2040.
“In order to meet the rising demand of oil and gas, the government has taken various policy initiatives to enhance oil and gas production including approving the Marginal Field Policy, linking the transparent new gas pricing formula to the global market, reassessing the hydrocarbon potential in India’s sedimentary basins, appraising about 1.5 million sq. km. of un-appraised basins and setting up of National Data Repository,” Pradhan said. “Further, the government is encouraging foreign direct investment (FDI) to supplement domestic investment and technological capabilities in the petroleum sector. The present FDI policy for oil and gas sector allows 100 per cent automatic route for exploration and production subject to the existing sectoral policy and regulatory framework in this sector,” he added.
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