Hindustan Construction (HCC) has been awarded the contract to excavate a crude oil storage cavern at Padur in the state of Karnataka.
HCC secured the contract worth Rs 374.66 Cr (US$80.8M) two years ago from Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves, which is part of the country’s Oil Industry Development Board itself part of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas.
Key activities involved in the contract to construct the unlined rock storage include geological mapping, detailed engineering and design, and excavation of a number of structures ranging from access tunnels, water curtain galleries and shafts to the main cavern to hold the oil.
Engineers India is the client’s project management consultant on the contract, which is one of two caverns – Part A and Part B to be built at the site. HCC was awarded the contract for Part A.
The caverns will have D-shaped cross-sections and be approximately 20m wide and up to 30m high. The oil is to be sealed within the caverns by the saturated rock mass and flowing groundwater.
The national agency plans to construct a number of the caverns and HCC is already excavating the first of the storage structures at Vishakhapatanam in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
The Padur project will take three years.
