The United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) will store crude oil in India’s 1.5 million tonnes-Mangalore strategic petroleum reserve using it as a wholesale storage capacity. India, which is 79 per cent dependent on imports to meet its crude oil needs, is building underground storage facilities at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, and Mangalore and Padur in Karnataka to store about 5.33 million tonnes of crude oil to guard against global price shocks and supply disruptions.

Adnoc is keen on taking half of the 1.5 million tonnes Mangalore facility. It will stock 0.75 million tonnes or 6 million barrels of oil in one compartment of Mangalore facility. Of this, 0.5 million tonnes will belong to India and it can use it in emergencies. Adnoc will use the facility as a warehouse for trading its oil. The 1.33 million tonnes Visakhapatnam storage and 2.5 million tonnes Padur stockpile together with the 1.5 million tonnes Mangalore storage will be enough to meet nation’s oil requirement of about 10 days.

India is looking at building four more strategic crude oil facilities at Bikaner in Rajasthan, Rajkot in Gujarat, Padur in Karnataka and Chandikhole in Jajpur district of Odisha. Besides Adnoc, Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) has also evinced interest in hiring a part of the maiden strategic storage.