India MRPL seeks Saudi grade in Mangalore SPR

India MRPL seeks Saudi grade in Mangalore SPR

NEW DELHI- India's MRPL plans to fill a part of the Mangalore strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) with Saudi oil, replacing Abu Dhabi's Upper Zakum grade, as it prepares to lease some space in the facility, a senior official said on Thursday. H.P.S. Ahuja, chief executive of Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL), which manages the federal oil inventories , confirmed Reuters' earlier reports that India has overhauled its SPR policy2 to lease a part of the facility to Indian and foreign companies. India, the world's third-biggest oil importer and consumer, has built strategic storage at three locations in southern India to store up to 5 million tonnes or about 37 million barrels of oil to protect against supply disruptions. Ahuja said Mangalore Refinery and Petroleum Ltd will lease 300,000 tonnes of space in the SPR, while will take a similar-sized space in the 1.03 million tonne Vizag SPRo ne of the two equal sized chambers at the 1.5 million tonne Mangalore SPR. "ADNOC will continue to hold its oil in its chamber, but we have to vacate the other chamber as MRPL wants to store Saudi oil," Ahuja said, adding MRPL is slowly withdrawing Upper Zakum oil. The federal government