India Plans to Fill up Oil Reserves with Cheap Crude Oil from Middle East Countries

New Delhi : Taking advantage of the fall in crude oil prices, India has started preparations to fill its underground reserves. For this, crude oil will be procured from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Iraq. Sources said that India has prepared an emergency underground reserve of 53.33 lakh tonnes at Mangalore and Padur in Karnataka and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. This is sufficient to meet India’s 9.5 day requirements. Presently Mangalore and Padur reserves are half empty while some in Visakhapatnam reserves are also vacant. These will now be filled by purchasing oil from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Iraq.

Sources said that Abu Dhabi National Oil Company had purchased half of Mangalore’s 1.5 million tonne storage capacity. It has kept 7.5 lakh tonnes of oil in it for its commercial use and the remaining space is vacant. It will be filled with UAE Upper Jakum Crude. Padur storage is the largest of these three and has a total capacity of 2.5 million tonnes. The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company had also tied up for half of it, but the company never filled it. Sources said that only half the reserves are full in it. There are plans to purchase 12.5 lakh tonnes of crude oil from Saudi Arabia to fill the remaining reserves. Similarly, the empty reserves in Visakhapatnam will be filled with Iraq oil.