Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru (SP)
Mangaluru, October 22: The central government, faced with the need to reduce the impact of the global rise in oil prices, has started selling the oil at its storage facility to state-owned oil processing companies. Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL) chief executive HPS Ahuja said the company has started selling the oil stock it holds. He said that would leave them free space that could be rented.
The entire stock of three lac tonnes of crude oil at one facility has been disposed of. He said that by the end of this year, the remaining 4.5 tons of crude oil will also be sold. ISPRL has two oil storage facilities there, one of which will be leased to Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. The crude oil pooled by the government was purchased by MRPL at market price. MRPL will store the crude oil received from Saudi Arabia at the leased facility, he added. 1.5 lac tonnes of crude oil collected at the Visakhapatnam facility was purchased by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.
The government had stored the oil when the price of a barrel of crude oil was $ 19, for emergency use. The price has now climbed to $ 80 a barrel. The center made a profit from this sale.