Give financial support to oil firms for storage: House panel

THE STANDING COMMITTEE on petroleum and natural gas has urged the oil ministry to provide funds to state-run oil companies for creation of storage caverns near their refineries and also to look at various options to increase the strategic storage capacity in line with the rising domestic demand.

- ARUNIMA BHARADWAJ

Currently, the country has 5.33 MT of crude oil storage capacity at three different locations—Vishakhapatnam (1.33 MT), Mangalore (1.5 MT) and Padur (2.5 MT)—built under phase I of strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) program.