India has said its five million tonnes of oil storage facilities are only just over fifty per cent full. Some of these storage facilities are in three underground cavern systems. It says only 56 per cent of these tanks are currently full. 

But there is not enough storage available to deal with the global oil glut, Indian analysts have said. Furthermore, they have said Indian storage could run out within just 13 days. 

Contrary to this though, the government-run oil major, Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited (ISPRL), said on Tuesday it was unsure when its storage would reach capacity – it said crude shipments were continuing to arrive at its ports “as normal”.

Elsewhere, there were plans afoot to build a 12.5 million facility in the country, but those have been put on hold. And a 6.5 million tonne facility was also approved by ISPRL two years ago, but construction work hasn’t started on that yet.

Earlier this week the nation’s petroleum minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, met with United Arab Emirates minister, Sultan Al Jaber, to discuss taking on some of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company’s (ADNOC) crude in India’s facilities, according to national newspaper, The Times of India. 

ADNOC currently has an agreement to lease 2.5 million tonnes of storage in the Indian region of Padar, and the UAE is India’s fourth-largest supplier of oil.

For more information visit www.isprlindia.com

9th April 2020