Mangalore: Crude oil storage facility will be commissioned next month: Moily

Mangalore, Feb 9 (DHNS): Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas M Veerappa Moily said that Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve Limited's (ISPRL) crude oil storage facility at Mangalore Special Economic Zone (MSEZ) in Mangalore will be commissioned next month.

Interacting with press persons on the sidelines of the inauguration of HPCL Transport hub at Bala here on Saturday, he said that about 75 per cent of the work of the underground cavern at Padur in Udupi has been completed.

"The two reserves, along with another storage in Vizag can store 5.33 million metric tonne (MMT) of crude oil. Mangalore's capacity is 1.5 MMT whereas that of Padur is 2.5 MMT," he said. In second phase, crude oil storage will be built in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Orissa and Kerala with a total proposed capacity of 12.5 MMT, he informed.

Transport hub

Earlier, Veerappa Moily inaugurated country's first transport hub at HPCL Mangalore LPG Import Facility (MLIF). The hub is meant for LPG traveling truck crew with a parking area for 60-70 tank trucks at a time, dormitory, medical room, book bank, gym, bakery, ATM, canteen, drinking water, resting shed and other facilities. The Minister said that it was the Perne gas tanker accident that occurred on April 9, 2013 that claimed more than 10 lives triggered him to think over constructing a hub. "There is no facility to relax and refresh for inter-state traveling tanker crews and many a time this leads to accidents due to dozing or laxity while driving," he said.

Moily took a dig at the protest against laying of LPG pipelines saying that if underground LPG pipelines were possible here like many developed countries, road accidents involving LPG tankers could have been avoided. "Some even propagated that underground LPG pipeline will be used for bomb explosion. In cities like Mumbai, 30 storied buildings were constructed on the underground pipeline sans any problem," he pointed.

“If we want to generate jobs, development is inevitable. Unless the boundary of development overlaps on wild life and environment there is hardly any problem. Our mindset is the problem,” Moily maintained. Ministers U T Khader, Abhayachandra Jain, MLA Mohiyuddin Bava, HPCL South zone DGM (LPG) Kanuru Srinivas, DGM (Retail) Saikumar Suri among others spoke.