Thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India now has her first strategic oil reserve in place. The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and an Indian consortium signed the deal for storage of 6 million barrels of crude oil which will be stored at underground caverns in Mangalore.

Narendra Modi, who is visiting UAE for the second time, signed the deal on Saturday. The Indian consortium consists of ONGC, Bharat Petro resources, and Indian Oil. ONGC chairman, Shashi Shanker, and ADNOC group chief executive Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber signed the deal.

India currently has three such storage facilities, at Mangalore, Padur, and Vishakhapatnam. It has a total storage capacity of 1.5 million tonnes which is divided into two compartments, out of which one will be filled by the funds provided by the government and the other by ADNOC.

In an official statement, Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd. (ISPRL) said, “The oil storage facility will help boost India’s energy security, as well as enable ADNOC to efficiently and competitively meet market demand in India and across the fast-developing southeast Asian economies”

The move is considered as a step to enhance oil supply in the country and will help ensure India’s energy security.