September 11, 2015 [Platts] - Indian state-owned refiner Indian Oil Corp. has hired a VLCC to move a cargo of Basrah Light crude for discharge at Visakhapatnam port where the country's first Strategic Petroleum Reserve facility is located, shipping sources said.
The 267,000 mt cargo is for September 23-loading and the 2009-built Georgios has been placed on subjects, a VLCC broker in New Delhi said.
State-owned refiners IOC and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd. are in charge of buying cargoes for the Visakhapatnam SPR.
The Visakhapatnam SPR will have a storage capacity of 1.33 million mt or 9.75 million barrels, according to the website of Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd.
So far, India has purchased four VLCC cargoes of crude for the SPR. A VLCC typically carries up to 2 million barrels of crude.
India has two more facilities planned at Padur and Mangalore on the western coast, with a combined capacity of 4.5 million mt, or 32.98 million barrels, as part of the first phase of its strategic reserve plan.
The startup dates for the two are yet to be announced.
Tenders inviting bids for drilling works in crude storage facilities at Mangalore and disposal of rock debris at Padur sites closed late last month.
The proposed storages would be in underground rock caverns on the east and west coasts so that they are readily accessible to the refining sector, the ISPRL website said.
The strategic storages are in addition to the existing storages of crude oil and petroleum products with the oil companies and is to serve as a cushion in response to external supply disruptions, it said.
