Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Oct 22: The central government, faced with the need to reduce the impact of the global oil price hike, has begun to sell the oil in its storage facility to government owned oil processing companies. Chief executive officer of the Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL), H P S Ahuja, said that the company has begun to sell the stock of oil in their possession. He said that this will leave them with spare space that can be given on lease.

The entire stock of three lac tonnes of crude oil in one facility has been disposed of. He said that by the end of this year, the remaining 4.5 lac tonnes of crude oil also will be sold. ISPRL has two oil storage facilities here, one of which will be leased to Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. The crude oil pooled by the government has been bought by MRPL at market price. MRPL will stock crude oil received from Saudi Arabia in the leased facility, he added. 1.5 lac tonnes of crude oil collected in the Visakhapatnam facility has been bought by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.

The government had stocked the oil when the price per barrel of crude oil was $19, for use during emergencies. The price has now soared to $80 a barrel. The centre has made a profit through this sale.