March 29, 2024
  • Government-owned engineering consultancy firm Engineers India Ltd.(EIL) is studying prospects and feasibility of developing salt cavern-based strategic oil reserves in Rajasthan.
  • Rajasthan, which has bulk of requisite salt formations in India, is seen as the most conducive for developing salt cavern-based strategic storage facilities.

SALT CAVERN-BASED RESERVES VS. ROCK CAVERN-BASED RESERVES

  • UNLIKE underground rock caverns, which are developed through excavation, salt caverns are developed by process of solution mining, which involves pumping water into geological formations with large salt deposits to dissolve the salt.
  • Process is simpler, faster, and less cost-intensive than developing excavated rock caverns.
  • Unlike rock caverns, salt cavern-based storages can be created and operated almost entirely from the surface.
  • Salt cavern-based oil storage facilities are also naturally well-sealed, and engineered for rapid injection and extraction of oil.

GLOBAL PRECEDENCE

  • The entire SPR programme of the United States has so far been based on salt cavern-based storage facilities.
  • The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the world’s largest emergency oil storage, consists of four sites with deep underground storage caverns created in salt domes along the Gulf of Mexico coast in Texas and Louisiana.
    • These have a cumulative capacity of around 727 million barrels.
The International Energy Agency (IEA), a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organisation in which India is an ‘Associate’ country, recommends that all countries should hold an emergency oil stockpile sufficient to provide 90 days of import protection.

 

STRATEGIC OIL RESERVES IN INDIA

  • India currently has an SPR capacity of 5.33 million tonnes, or around 39 million barrels of crude, that can meet around 9.5 days of demand.
  • Construction of strategic oil reserves facilities is managed by Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve Limited (ISPRL), special purpose vehicle, under Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
  • The country’s three existing strategic oil storage facilities — at Mangaluru and Padur in Karnataka, and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh — are made up of excavated rock caverns.
  • The country is in the process of expanding its SPR capacity by a cumulative 6.5 million tonnes at two locations — Chandikhol in Odisha (4 million tonnes) and Padur (2.5 million tonnes).
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