The Union Cabinet on Wednesday allowed Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) to trade half of the crude oil it has stored in Indian underground strategic reserves. Till now, ADNOC, which has hired half of 1.5 million tonnes underground storage at Mangaluru, was allowed to commercially use 35 per cent of the oil stored. It could trade or sell another 15 per cent with the explicit approval of the government. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, allowed ADNOC to commercially use 50 per cent of the oil it has stored in the reserves, an official said. The flexibility allowed will encourage the company to store more oil in the three reserves India has built as insurance against supply and price disruptions. The official said while ADNOC bears the cost of oil, India has the first right over its usage in an emergency. This guarantees energy security without spending money on oil. Besides hiring half of the Mangaluru capacity, ADNOC had also
In September, India's oil minister said the refinery would cost more than the originally planned $45 billion.
Currently, Reliance Industries Ltd is a major supplier of petrochemicals along with government-owned refiners.
Also, the unit will now be set up in Raigad district as land acquisition at a previous site in Ratnagiri district was stalled due to farmer protests
The deal, expected to close in the third quarter of 2019, will result in upfront proceeds of some $4 billion to ADNOC.
It will be the second such deal with ADNOC, which is already storing oil at the Mangalore strategic storage in Karnataka
The UAE is a major OPEC producer pumping around 3 million bpd of crude oil and plans to boost its output oil capacity to 3.5 million bpd by the end of this year