India tops up strategic reserves with cheaper crude, saves over $685 mn

 Taking advantage of low prices in major oil-producing centres in Saudi Arabia and UAE, India has filled up its strategic crude oil reserves to meet its energy needs in times of emergency and saved a neat $685.11 million in the process.

It bought crude oil at an average price of $19 per barrel to fill its reserves in April and May when prices reached an all-time low while the US oil touched negative price levels in futures market.

The state-funded reserves are meant to tide over short-term supply disruptions and will take care of India's oil needs for 9.5 days.

The country was already holding half of its total 5.33 million tonnes oil reserves capacity when the government decided to take advantage of the low crude prices.

India's three petroleum reserve caverns at Visakhapatnam (1.33MT), Mangaluru (1.5MT) and Padur (2.5MT), managed by India Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL), are now full.

Another 6.5MT facility is coming up at Padur in Karnataka, and Chandikhole in Jajpur.

Work on two more facility at Bikaner in Rajasthan and Rajkot in Gujarat will be initiated soon. When complete, these facilities will hold enough oil to meet domestic requirements for over a month.

The oil ministry has also told the ISPRL to identify new sites so that the storage facility is increased to ensure oil stock of 90-100 days for use in an emergency at all times.

A large strategic oil reserve capacity can benefit even more from lower oil prices as these lead to huge savings for the exchequer.

The ISPRL has signed a memorandum of understanding with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) for the lease of half of its 2.5 million tonnes Padur facility. Last year, it signed an MoU with Saudi Aramco for the lease of a quarter of Padur SPR.

The ISPRL has already leased half of the 1.5 million tonne capacity in Mangaluru storage to ADNOC. It has also filled its 1.03 million tonne Vizag facility with Basra oil from another OPEC producer, Iraq.

--IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

UAE's Hope Probe on course to Mars after successful launch from Japan

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) became the newest member of an exclusive club of nations to send a spacecraft to Mars when it successfully launched the Hope Probe from Japan on Monday.
The Mitsubishi-built H2A rocket blasted off from the Tanegashima Space Centre in Japan to push the probe out of Earth's orbit. The launch comes on the back of six years of planning and development as the rockets propelled the probe towards Mars in a bid to map the atmospheric changes on the Red Planet.
"Congrats to the team that worked on the Hope Mars Mission. It’s truly amazing what the UAE Space Agency & @MBRSpaceCentre has accomplished in such a short time. Hope is exactly what the world needs and thank you to the UAE & @MHI_Group for inspiring all of us," NASA director Jim Bridenstine said.
ALSO READ: With 'Hope Probe' UAE aims to be newest entrant in crowded Martian orbit
The launch of the spacecraft named Amal, or Hope, marks the start of the seven-month journey to the red planet. The launch initially planned for July 15, had been delayed for five days due to bad weather. The probe will study the upper atmosphere and monitor climate change while circling Mars for at least two years.
The craft is expected to reach Mars in February 2021, the year the UAE celebrates 50 years since its formation.
A newcomer in space development, the UAE has successfully put three Earth observation satellites into orbit. Two were developed by South Korea and launched by Russia, and a third it's own was launched by Japan.
A successful Hope mission to Mars would be a major step for the oil-dependent economy seeking a future in space, coming less than a year after the launch of the first UAE astronaut, Hazzaa Ali Almansoori. He spent over a week at the International Space Station last fall.
Hope Probe, UAE Mars missionDuring its cruise, the probe will achieve a speed of 121,000 km/h. (Source: UAE Space Agency)
The UAE has set a goal to build a human colony on Mars by 2117.
Hope, about the size of a small car, carries three instruments to study the upper atmosphere and monitor climate change while circling the red planet for at least two years. It is set to follow up on NASA's Maven orbiter sent to Mars in 2014 to study how it went from a warm, wet world that may have harbored microbial life during its first billion years, to the cold, barren place of today.
Hope mission
Hope also plans to send back images of weather changes.
Meanwhile, NASA is in final phase for sending off the Perseverance rover to Mars, scheduled to take off on July 30. The rover will land on Martian surface and look for ancient microbial life ahead of proposed manned missions.