The Hindu Business Line : BPCL-IOC liquid jetty opened at JN port

ONE of the first third party cargoes to be handled by the BPCL-IOC liquid jetty at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), which was formally inaugurated by Mr Ram Naik, Union Petroleum Minister, on Friday, will be that of Reliance.

According to an official, Reliance which is moving around one lakh tonnes of cargo per month for its Patalganga plant in Maharashtra through the JN port currently, will shift to the new joint venture BPCL - IOC jetty from November 15.

"The pipelines linking RIL tank farms will have to be linked to the new jetty and that could be done by November 15," the official said.

Reliance mainly brings kerosene, naphtha and LAB through the JN port for its petrochemicals plant at Patalganga. Once RIL starts retail marketing of petro products, JN port would be the main hub for bringing its products from its refinery at Jamnagar to Mumbai and neighbouring areas. Mumbai is expected to be a major centre for storage of ATF.

Besides Reliance cargo, the new jetty will be handling around 50,000 tonnes of ONGC cargo per month. Other private parties who have tank farms at JN port are expected to switch over to the new jetty by six months as JN port will be closing down its liquid berth by then, the official said.

The BPCL-IOC jetty, built at a cost of Rs 150 crore, was originally planned for a captive jetty for handling IOC and BPCL products. The jetty has a capacity to handle eight million tonnes per annum. The jetty which can handle two vessels at a time is equipped to handle all types of cargo — A, B and C classes, said the official.

Inaugurating the jetty, Mr Naik said the liquid jetty was constructed as per the recommendation of the Mumbai Working Group of the oil industry. He said the project was completed ahead of time, in 30 months, thereby saving around Rs 48 crore in overall cost.

Mr S. Behuria, Chairman, BPCL, said the jetty would be able to handle bigger vessels once the proposed deepening of the channel was carried out. JNPT has submitted Rs 700-crore project to deepen the channel to the Government for approval and financial support.

The jetty was ready by March 2002 and had been handling captive cargoes for the two oil companies. The new jetty built on BOOT basis will have to follow the port privatisation norms for handling third party cargo.

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