New Delhi, Sept. 16 -- India has reportedly awarded Megha Engineering & Infrastructures Ltd (MEIL) the contract for its first private-sector strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) at Padur, Karnataka. This new reserve, with a capacity of 2.5 million metric tonnes (mmt), marks the first commercial crude oil storage facility in the country and is a key part of phase II of India's SPR programme.

India currently has SPRs totalling 5.33 mmt at Visakhapatnam (1.33 mmt), Mangaluru (1.5 mmt) and Padur (2.5 mmt) that were built by state-run Engineers India Ltd.

Expansion plans in phase II include a 4 mmt reserve at Chandikhol in Odisha. In addition, India plans to build new SPRs at six proposed locations to draw down on these emergency oil stocks dur...