Abu Dhabi [UAE] May 12 (ANI): Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and UAE Minister of State & Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) Group CEO Dr. Sultan Al Jaber flagged off first consignment of 2 million barrels of ADNOC crude for Mangalore Cavern on Saturday.

During the day, Pradhan also held bilateral meeting with H.E. Dr. Jaber. Minister Pradhan was accompanied by Ambassador Navdeep Suri, senior officials and CEOs for Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum.

Both sides discussed on the ongoing cooperation in the hydrocarbon sector and explored ways to further enhance the engagement. They had detailed discussions on the Indian downstream sector and explored the various opportunities for participation of UAE companies in the mega petroleum sector infrastructure projects in India. Pradhan also invited UAE companies to participate as preferred partners in the entire hydrocarbon value chain of India.

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister also had an interactive session with over 250 Indian professionals, business leaders and community representatives working in the UAE. The event was organised by the Embassy of India in Abu Dhabi in collaboration with the Abu Dhabi Chapter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and IBPG-Abu Dhabi.

Pradhan is visiting UAE to follow up on the February 2018 UAE visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

During the visit of PM, Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL) signed an agreeement with the ADNOC of UAE under which ADNOC will store about 5.86 million barrels of crude oil in India's Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) facility at Mangalore at its own cost.

ISPRL has built 5.33 million tonnes (around 39 million barrels) of strategic crude oil storage at three locations located at Vishakhapatnam, Mangalore and Padur. Vishakhapatnam storage has a capacity of 1.33 million tonnes (9.77 million barrels) of crude oil, Mangalore has a capacity of 1.5 million tonnes (11 million barrels) and Padur can stock 2.5 million tonnes (18.37 million barrels). Government of India can use the entire available crude oil stored by ADNOC in the Mangalore SPR facility during an emergency situation.

The Agreement with ISPRL also allows ADNOC to sell part of the crude oil to Indian refineries on commercial basis while adhering to mutually agreed minimum crude storage which is for exclusive use of the Indian government. (ANI)

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