Abu Dhabi – Mubasher: Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) on Monday announced signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL) to explore storage at a facility in Karnataka, India.

Under the MoU, ADNOC will explore crude storage at Padur Underground Facility, which has a 2.5 million tonne capacity, the UAE-based firm tweeted, adding that this capacity translates to roughly 17 million barrels of crude.

As part of the deal, ADNOC may store crude in two compartments at Padur, it said.

ADNOC director of marketing, sales, and trading Abdulla Salem Al Dhaheri signed the MoU with ISPRL CEO and managing director HPS Ahuja on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC).

“The MoU with ADNOC will allow ISPRL to explore opportunities related to the possible storage of ADNOC crude at Padur, which would help to significantly strengthen the country’s strategic petroleum reserves,” commented Dharmendra Pradhan, India’s minister of petroleum, natural gas and skill development and entrepreneurship.

Meanwhile, UAE’s minister of state and ADNOC Group CEO Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber stated that India was an important oil market and this deal would bolster the strategic energy agreement between the UAE and India as well as ADNOC’s expertise and oil resources.

“It is our firm hope that we will be able to convert this framework agreement into a new mutually beneficial partnership that will create opportunities for ADNOC to increase deliveries of high-quality crude oil to India's expanding energy market and helping India meet its growing energy demand and safeguard its energy security,” Al Jaber added.

ADIPEC kicked off earlier on Monday and runs until Thursday, 15 November.