The Hindu Business Line : Paradip likely to start handling crude by March

IF everything proceeds as planned, Paradip port should start handling crude for the first time in March 2006 when the first VLCC (very large crude carrier) is expected to call there. This will be possible because the single point mooring (SPM), whose installation work is in progress, will be ready for operation by that time.

The Iranian Offshore Oil Company, which has been contracted by Indian Oil Corporation to lay the 21-km-long submersible pipeline between the SPM and the nearest coastline, is to start work on the project from October, it is learnt. To be located in the sea about 21 km from the coastline, the SPM will have an average draft of 30 metres or so, enough to handle large crude carriers with full load.

Paradip port authorities are keen that the project becomes ready for operation at the earliest as the installation of the SPM and construction of the Paradip-Haldia crude pipeline together will boost the port's traffic by an additional six to seven million tonnes. The port's traffic throughput will jump in one go as the bulk of the crude requirement of Haldia refinery will be met by way of imports through Paradip and transportation of the imports through Paradip-Haldia crude pipeline whose work is in progress.

Although Paradip can boast of an oil jetty, the throughput of the jetty leaves much to be desired. This is presumably because the jetty now handles only petroleum products in limited quantities. Between April and August, the throughput was 4.37 lakh tonnes as compared with 3.33 lakh tonnes in the same period last year. The port, it is claimed, can handle up to two million tonnes without any difficulty. But, with refining capacity in the country having been built up substantially, the accent now is more on importing crude than finished products.

Meanwhile, the incessant rains in the past three days hit hard the operation of Paradip port. The loading and unloading of cargo, tippling, rail movement and ship movement everything was affected, so much so that the average daily output dropped by more than 30 per cent. This has also led to congestion, with 10 vessels now waiting for berths - five vessels for loading iron ore for exports and five others with imported sulphur and rock phosphate. The vessels with imported fertiliser raw materials, however, are stuck (for nearly three weeks) for a different reason. A court order is believed to have prevented them from discharging their consignments.

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