New Delhi, May 29: India has proposed using Sri Lanka's Trincomalee storage depots, which were recently acquired by state-run Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), for stockpiling strategic oil reserves to meet contingency requirements. "The tanks would be refurbished and improved to make it a strategic oil storage for the two nations so as to meet any eventuality," India has proposed to Sri Lanka.

Sources said Trincomalee on the northeastern coast is the fifth largest non-tidal natural harbour that has the draught to accommodate vessels of any size.
The China Bay tanks with storage capacity of a million tonnes are hidden under scrub, making it difficult to see them from land or air.
India, which depends on imported crude for 70 per cent of its requirement, is planning to build 45-days strategic crude oil reserves as insurance against disruption in supplies. In the first phase, 15-days storage capacity is being contemplated at an estimated cost of Rs 1,250 crore by 2006. Bureau Report