ABU DHABI TO FILL HALF OF OIL RESERVES

New Delhi: Abu Dhabi National Oil Company ( ADNOC) will send three large ships carrying crude oil beginning April to fill half of the 1.5 million tonnes strategic oil reserves India has built at Mangalore. Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said ADNOC last week signed an agreement to use half of the underground storages built at Mangalore as part of emergency stockpile. ADNOC has indicated its oil consignments for next two months are booked and it would start filling the Mangalore storage it has taken from April, he said. It would take three very large crude carriers to fill 5.86 million barrels or 0.75 million tonnes of space it has taken in Mangalore. The storage would be filled by May, he said. ADNOC had last year given up its crude storage lease in South Korea and instead agreed to store oil at Mangalore in a bid to establish ground presence in India.