The government-owned Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL) is ready to fill the just-built underground rock-cut caverns near Mangalore with crude oil.
´It will be filled as soon as the single point mooring facilities become available,´ said Rajan Pillai, CEO and Managing Director, ISPRL. The SPM, which is a loading buoy anchored offshore, is currently unavailable because of the monsoon.
The Mangalore caverns took Rs.1,227 crore to build.
Engineers India Ltd did the project with help from Geostock of France, which is engaged in a similar business. The Mangalore caverns will have capacity to store 1.5 million tonnes (11 million barrels) of oil, valued at Rs.51 crore at today´s prices. These caverns will be the second of the three caverns that ISPRL is building to hold India´s strategic oil reserves.