The country would be able to fall back on these reserves, which would ensure supply security, Indian officials said in Islamabad, commenting on the facility that would be set up by state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and GAIL (India) Ltd.
These underground natural gas storage facilities would be set up through a special purpose vehicle. French consultants Gaz de France will assist in the project, the officials said.
India and Pakistan this week agreed to sort out transit, legal, financial and structural issues by year-end for the 2,600 km pipeline to take-off from early 2006.
New Delhi hopes to import 60 million standard cubic metres per day of gas through the pipeline, 760-km of which will pass through Pakistan, by the first half of 2010 and ramp up imports from Iran to 90-100 mmscmd by 2015.
Pakistan will also tap some 60 mmscmd of gas from the pipeline and also earn transit fee for allowing its territory to be used for passage of the pipeline.
Officials said the strategic storage facility would be built in Rajasthan, with a reserve capacity of up to one billion standard cubic metres. Oil Industry Development Board has pledged Rs 500,000 for an initial study on building the facility.
The French consultancy firm, GdF, has vast experience in the field of developing and operating underground gas storage in different types of rock formations as well as depleted gas fields. It owns and operates a large number of such storage facilities in France, as well as in other countries, an official said.
GAIL would seek advice from the consultants on the development of an underground natural gas storage facility either in porous media such as depleted oil or gas fields or underground gas storage in salt leached caverns.
Officials said consultants to the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline have suggested involvement of an international consortium of bankers and oil firms for building and operation of the project.
It was the consultants who had suggested creation of gas stockpile on the Indian border to act as reserve in the event of a disruption of normal supply due to sabotage of the pipeline. Such a storage facility would have supplies to meet at least 30 days of requirement.
Besides motion detectors and satellite monitoring of the pipeline were suggested as other measures against sabotage, the officials said.
Iran has already guaranteed to supply natural gas in ships (in form of liquefied natural gas) at the same price as the piped gas, in case of disruption.
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