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Private company gets control of strategic oil reserve storage facility in India

Megha Engineering & Infrastructures Ltd won a government tender for the construction of a 2.5 million tons oil storage facility within five years, as well as for its extraction at a large field in Padur in order to strengthen India’s energy security

NEW DELHI, September 16. /TASS/. Private company Megha Engineering & Infrastructures Ltd has become the first in India to receive the right to build and manage a non-government-owned underground storage facility for the republic’s strategic oil reserve, The Times of India newspaper reported.

The company won a government tender for the construction of a 2.5 million tons oil storage facility within five years, as well as for its extraction at a large field in Padur (southern Karnataka state) in order to strengthen India’s energy security. Megha Engineering's investment in the project over its life is estimated at 57 billion rupees ($647.4 million), and it plans to recoup infrastructure costs by leasing oil storage facilities to the Indian government and state-owned companies for emergency use with the right to freely process and sell the oil for a period of 60 years.

India currently has an oil storage capacity of 36.7 million barrels, which meets the country's energy needs for 8-9 days. This is significantly less than the US (727 million barrels) and China (290 million barrels). As local media reported earlier, in order to increase its strategic oil reserve, the state-owned Indian company Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL) is considering leasing oil storage facilities in Singapore, Japan and South Korea. This will allow India to ensure a level of oil reserves equivalent to at least 90 days of national hydrocarbon imports.

India is one of the world's largest oil importers. Its deliveries to the republic in 2024 increased by 2.3%, to 240.543 million tons, Russia's share in Indian oil purchases reached 36.4%.

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