The Hindu Business Line : Mundra SPM receives first crude consignment

THE newly commissioned single-point mooring (SPM) facility of the Adanis-promoted Mundra Port has received its first consignment of crude oil for Indian Oil Corporation.

MT Omala, a very large crude carrier (VLCC) carrying 2,65,000 tonnes of crude from Nigeria, docked at the SPM facility on Tuesday and began the discharge of 70,000 tonnes of crude meant for IOC's Bhatinda refinery. (An SPM is a floating buoy in the sea connected with a pipeline that enables large vessels to discharge their liquid cargo without coming to the jetty.)

The crude is being stored at the tank farm. The crude pipeline is set up by IOC at Mundra at a cost of Rs 331 crore. It would be moved to the Bhatinda refinery through its Kandla-Bhatinda pipeline that has recently been converted into a crude carrying pipeline, the IOC Director (Pipelines Division), Mr A. M. Uplenchwar, told newspersons here.

The Adanis have set up the SPM facility at a cost of Rs 350 crore and have been mandated by IOC to handle at least 6 million tonnes (mt) a year.

After the proposed Panipat refinery expansion is completed in two years, Mundra will handle 9 mt of crude for IOC annually. "We are about to commission the 6-mt expansion of the Bhatinda refinery in a couple of months. Further, the refinery is being expanded by another 3 mt to 15 mt. The extra crude will be moved through Mundra," Mr Uplenchwar said.

The Adani Group Chairman, Mr Gautam Adani, said that the Mundra SPM has been designed to handle 25 mt of crude annually. "We are in talks with ONGC Ltd, Essar Oil Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd to use the Mundra SPM to import crude. Ours is the only facility that can handle vessels up to 3,00,000 tonnes of capacity," Mr Adani said.

The Mundra SPM offers a draught of 32 metres and a 48-inch under-sea pipeline connects the facility to the landfall point.