Shri Ram Naik,
Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas, informed the Lok Sahba
that the Government proposes to build strategic storage of crude
oil to provide for 45 days cover in phases. To begin with, detailed
feasibility reports for constructing underground strategic storage
to provide for 15 days cover of crude oil requirement have been
prepared. The Government would like to complete all the work
on these projects speedily. These storages will be in addition
to the crude oil and product tankages maintained by the oil
companies for their normal business operations.
While replying
to the supplementaries Shri Naik informed that for the 15 day
storage, study conducted by EIL has estimated a capital cost
of Rs. 1225 crore and the maintenance cost of about Rs. 600
crore. The estimated capital cost for building storages for
45 days of crude requirement comes to about Rs. 4,350 crore
and the maintenance cost of about Rs. 1,800 crore. The cost
of crude oil for 45 days’ requirements would be about Rs. 15,600
crore. The Minister added that the Government is examining the
methodology to fund the project. At the moment, two methodologies
have been suggested which include sanction of grant by the Government
and levy of cess on the petroleum products.
