India to Build Huge Crude Oil Reserve

India will build crude oil reserves of five million tonnes at an estimated investment of Rs.24 million ($585 million) to address its rising energy demand, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said here Wednesday.

The reserves were likely to come up in Visakhapatnam, Mangalore and Padur with funds coming from Oil Industry Development Board (OIDB), Deora said after laying the foundation stone for the board's new building here.

For this purpose, a holding company called Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd has been created as a wholly owned subsidiary of the board, he added. The board is an autonomous body established in 1975 under an act of parliament to provide financial assistance for the development of oil and gas industry.

The board has so far given loan assistance worth Rs.216 billion to various projects like the Mumbai High fields of Oil and Natural Gas Corp, the Numaligarh Refinery in Assam and the gas distribution projects in Delhi and Mumbai.