Work on Visakhapatnam Strategic Oil Reserve started: Deora

New Delhi, Apr 15 (UNI) Government today said the construction activities of Strategic Oil Reserves at Visakhapatnam has already begun and tenders for pre-qualification of bidders for the Mangalore Project are being issued.

Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Murli Deora in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today said the Construction activities at Mangalore are expected to commence during the current financial year.

The Strategic Oil Reserves of the country are coming up at Visakhapatnam, Mangalore and Padur.

On the Padur project, pre-construction activities such as survey for land acquisition, application for environmental clearances and pipeline route survey are in progress.

The three sites will together hold five Million Metric Ton (MMT) crude oil reserves, which is equivalent to about 14 days' cover on consumption basis and 19 days cover on net import basis of 2006-07.

The Government has approved creation of a total of 15 MMT strategic storage capacity which will be done in phases, after completion of the ongoing first phase of five MMT capacity.

In conjunction with the tankage capacity available with the Public Sector Oil Companies, the Strategic Reserves will enable the country to deal with situations of short-term disruptions in supply of crude oil due to any emergency from a global event or in helping the supply position during/after a natural calamity.

UNI PBB PDT AS2040