The Hindu Business Line : Policy on setting up of SBM at major ports on anvil

A POLICY on setting up single buoy mooring (SBM) facility at major ports in the country to evacuate the crude cargo cheaply and quickly is on the anvil.

The Shipping Secretary, Mr D.T. Joseph, had directed his officials last month to come up with a draft policy on installing SBM at the major ports. The policy drafted by the ports wing in the Ministry was discussed at a meeting held on Wednesday.The draft policy will incorporate features to make the SBM facility attractive to the users through competitive port tariffs with attendant benefits in terms of higher petroleum, oil and lubricants (POL) traffic, which is a mainstay of several major ports.

With many major ports handicapped by draft restrictions, setting up SBM in the mid-sea within the jurisdiction of the major ports would enable larger tankers of 2-3 lakh dwt to evacuate the crude cargo by tying up with the moorings without entering the berths.

Big oil importers such as Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Reliance are increasingly relying on bigger tankers to move their crude cargo to achieve economies of scale. But, the lack of adequate draft at many major ports makes it difficult for such large tankers to call directly at the berths for discharging the crude cargo.

Setting up SBM in the mid-sea would provide a draft varying between 25 and 30 metres whereas the draft available at the berths are hardly 14 to 15 metres. Since the draft is very high near an SBM facility, larger tankers can come and unload the crude cargo which can then be sent to the coast through pipelines.

"This will result in faster movement of crude cargo at much lesser cost provided the port tariffs are reduced," a Shipping Ministry official said.

A policy on SBM will benefit major ports such as Paradip where IOC is planning to construct a 300 km-long crude pipeline connecting Haldia. This will necessitate the installation of a SBM to accommodate large crude tankers with full load. The commissioning of the pipeline will boost Paradip's traffic by almost 10 to 12 million tonnes. Haldia, Kolkata, Kochi, Vizag, New Mangalore and Kandla are also expected to gain from the proposed SBM policy, the official said.

The installation of SBMs would enable the major port trusts to retain their POL traffic and even increase the throughput which would otherwise have gone to the non-major ports owned by the State governments, if they are set up outside the major port limits.

Last year, Kandla Port Trust had sought the intervention of the Shipping and Petroleum Ministries when IOC signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Adani Group for discharging six million tonnes of crude meant for its Panipat refinery through a SBM facility installed at the non-major port of Mundra in Gujarat.

Kandla port authorities were then directed to explore the possibility of setting up an SBM at the port so that IOC could switch over to Kandla instead of using the Mundra port.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication

Stories in this Section
Air Deccan plane catches fire after flag-off

Policy on setting up of SBM at major ports on anvil

Concern over new port security norms

Ministry finalises plan on non-NHDP projects

`Land buying hassles hit road schemes'