Page 4 - AsianOil Week 30 2021

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India approves two new SPR sites

POLICY THE Indian government has approved plans
to build two underground crude oil storage
facilities that will expand the country’s strate-
gic petroleum reserve (SPR) capacity by 6.5mn
tonnes (47.65mn barrels).
The central government allocated INR2.1bn
($28.18mn) in fiscal year 2020-2021 to acquire
the land needed for a 4mn tonne (43.98mn bar-
rel) facility in Odisha State and a 2.5mn tonne
(18.3mn barrel) facility in Karnataka State, Min-
ister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Rameswar
Teli told the Lower House on July 26.
“The Request for Proposal [RfP] for building
these storage facilities is under finalisation. An
amount of INR210 crore was allocated in the
budget of FY2020-21 under Phase II for land
acquisition, and same has been disbursed to
ISPRL,” Teli said in a written reply. However, Teli
said the new storages would differ from existing
state-run SPR capacity, as they would be oper-
ated under a public-private partnership model.
State-owned Indian Strategic Petroleum off on plans for ISPRL to trade around 20% of
Reserve Ltd (ISPRL) operates three under- SPR capacity as a hedge and lease another 30%
ground bunkers in Mangalore, Visakhapatnam to third parties, industry media outlet Argus
and Padur, with 2.5mn tonnes, 1.5mn tonnes quoted Ahuja as saying on July 26.
(11mn barrels) and 1.33mn tonnes (9.75mn India is looking to expand its SPR capacity as
barrels) of capacity respectively. the country’s dependence on imported oil grows,
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas owing to a years-long slide in domestic output.
said the reserves at Mangalore, Visakhapatnam Indian oil production slipped again in
and Padur were “strategic in nature” and would June, shrinking 1.79% year on year to 2.48mn
be used when the “government decided”. tonnes (606,000 barrels per day). Meanwhile,
However, ISPRL head HPS Ahuja said this output for the quarter sagged 3.42% to 7.41mn
week that the government intended to commer- tonnes (597,000 bpd). Production in the 2020-
cialise the SPR, trading the oil as a hedge against 2021 year contracted by 5.22% to 30.49mn
price inflation. The Indian cabinet has signed tonnes (612,000 bpd).™

OGDCL strikes gas,

condensate in Wali licence

PROJECTS & PAKISTAN’S Oil & Gas Development OGDCL added that the well was drilled to
COMPANIES Company Ltd (OGDCL) has struck natu- a depth of 4,727 metres, before a drill stem test
ral gas and condensate at its wholly owned (DST) was conducted in the formation. The well
Wali exploration licence in the country’s flowed gas at 11.8mn cubic feet (334,180 cubic
north-western province of Khyber Pakh- metres) per day during testing and produced 945
tunkhwa (KPK). barrels per day (bpd) of condensate.
OGDCL said in a statement to the Paki- “This discovery will add to the hydrocarbon
stan Stock Exchange on July 29 that its Wali-1 reserves of OGDCL and, in addition to increas-
exploration well made the discovery over the ing hydrocarbon supply and reducing the energy
Kawagarh Formation, which is located in the crisis in our country,” said OGDCL.
Kohat Basin. The news of the find comes after the company
The company said the Wali discovery was revealed in June that it had made five discoveries
the first for Pakistan’s Kawagarh Formation in the first nine months of fiscal year 2020-2021.
and was expected to open up new exploration OGDCL said in its financial report for the
opportunities. July-March period that it had discovered Togh

P4 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 30 29•July•2021