Export from crude oil caverns

The Narendra- Modi government on Wednesday dropped its stand on an export ban from the country’s  giant crude storages in south India as the Union cabinet gave permission to Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) to export its crude stored inside the Mangalore strategic petroleum reserve facility. The move may enhance foreign participation as India seeks to expand its storage capacity.

Union minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters after the cabinet meeting that the council of ministers have decided “to allow Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) to trade the oil it has stocked at the strategic reserves”.

The permission to ADNOC — the national oil company of Abu Dhabi — to export its oil mirrors a model adopted by countries such as Japan and South Korea which allow producers to re-export the crude in their storages.

The Mangalore storage has a total capacity of 1.5 million tonnes. Of this, half had previously been hired by ADNOC.

The arrangement with ADNOC allows India to have a first right over the crude oil stored in the reserves during any emergency, the minister said.

Besides hiring half of the Mangalore capacity, ADNOC had in November 2018 signed up to hire half of the 2.5 million tonne (about 17 million barrels) capacity at Padur, the biggest of the three storages. However, Adnoc did not store any oil.

Javadekar also said that the Cabinet has given a post-facto approval to spend

Rs 3,874 crore on stocking low priced oil in the three underground crude oil storages.

India had saved over Rs 5,000 crore by taking advantage of the low crude oil prices in the international market during April-May by filling up the crude caverns.

The cabinet on Wednesday approved the demerger of the under-construction Nagarnar steel plant (NSP) from NMDC  and its disinvestment by selling the entire stake of the Centre to a strategic buyer.

State-owned NMDC is building the steel plant at Nagarnar in Chhattisgarh.

The process of demerger and disinvestment will be initiated in parallel and the divestment of the demerged company (NSP) is expected to be completed by September 2021.