Shell keen to lease Indian west coast strategic oil storage

Shell will use the Mangalore site for commercial storage, but in the event of an emergency will have to make supplies available to state-run refiners and keep the site filled at specified levels. – Reuters

NEW DELHI: Royal Dutch Shell is in talks to lease India’s new strategic oil caverns at Mangalore on the country’s southwest coast, two sources said, giving it increased storage in a market where oil demand is increasing.

A decision on the Mangalore site, which has total capacity of around 11 million barrels of oil, depends on Shell winning relief from local sales tax, the sources said, while commissioning has been pushed back by two months to December.