Once completed, the three projects will together contain a buffer stock of 5 million tonnes of crude, capable of sustaining the fuel needs of the country for 14 days.
All the refineries in the country can presently sustain the country’s demand for three weeks.
It is hoped that these reserves will substantially improve the country’s ability to withstand economic and military sieges and provide it with much-needed bargaining power with oil supplying nations. ISPRL officials told The Hindu that the Mangalore reserve was coming up on 82.62 acres of land acquired from the Mangalore Special Economic Zone Ltd., at a cost of Rs. 41.31 crore. The construction is expected to be completed by 2012 at a cost of Rs. 1,000 crore.
Work on the Visakhapatnam reservoir started in April last year while land is still being acquired for the project in Padur.
According to present official estimates, the three projects will cost over Rs. 11,000 crore. The construction of these storage spaces is expected to cost just a fraction of the total investment. The main expense will be incurred during the filling of the reservoirs with crude oil, which is expected to cost over Rs. 8,000 crore based on average crude prices of $ 55 a barrel.
The reservoirs will be built by carving out a large cavern inside one monolithic piece of rock — an experiment that has never been tried in the country. The concept of rock cavern is popular in several countries because of the safety it provides to the crude from external threats, both natural and manmade.
The ISPRL caverns will be located several metres below ground-level.
This is expected to prevent the volatile fuels stored inside from coming into contact with external fires.
As an added shield from inflammation and gas leaks, the storage area will be enveloped by water.
Neither the fluid crude nor the inflammable gases will be able to penetrate the jacket of water.
The greatest challenge for the ISPRL prospectors was to find a large enough rock that could not only house the cavern but also meet the logistical requirements.
The present locations were selected from a long list of prospective destinations that were thrown up during satellite searches.
