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Our Bureau

Kolkata , Dec. 22

IRANIAN Offshore Engineering & Construction Company, an Iran-based company, has bagged the order for laying the 22-km long submersible pipeline between the single buoy mooring (SBM) proposed to be installed in the sea off Paradip port and the landfall.

The contract has been awarded by Indian Oil Corporation which is to install the SBM for handling large crude carriers with full load, initially for transporting crude by pipeline to Haldia refinery and subsequently meet the requirement of the 12-mtpa capacity Paradip refinery as and when it comes up. IOC, however, is still to start the work on the Paradip-Haldia crude pipeline.

The work on the submersible pipeline, according to Paradip Port Trust (PPT) sources, is to begin in January and take about six months to complete, provided everything proceeds as planned. Paradip port, which does not handle any crude traffic at present, hopes to start handling the same through the SBM, an estimated five million tonnes in 2005-06 and 15 mt in a full year of operation. Right now, the port handles only petroleum products, an estimated 1.4 mt annually.

PPT has already constructed an oil jetty, which is yet to be commissioned. Built at a cost of about Rs 50 crore, the jetty has a draft of 12.7 metres, ideally suited for LR I crude tankers (65,000 dwt). PPT sources hope to start handling the tankers at the jetty shortly.

Oil & Natural Gas Corporation has sought the help of PPT for undertaking drilling of 21 wells in the Mahanadi basin and four wells in Sagar Island, though strictly speaking Sagar Island falls under the jurisdiction of Kolkata Port Trust. PPT has agreed to extend all the necessary help in terms of providing sheds as well as open space and berthing facilities for the vessels to facilitate the drilling operation which is to start early next year and continue for four years. It might be noted that the port has been extending similar facilities to Reliance, also engaged in drilling off Paradip, for the past one-and-half years.

Meanwhile, a total of 1,235 cargo-handling workers under the cargo pool maintained by PPT are going to be absorbed as employees of the port shortly.

Such absorption, according to PPT sources, will not slap any additional burden on the port authorities as the workers are already getting the same pay and perks as they will be entitled to following the absorption. However, the posts will cease to exist after their retirement, add the sources.

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