The Hindu Business Line : MRPL's second refinery to lift New Mangalore port traffic

THE New Mangalore Port can expect a huge increase in its traffic, once the 15-MTPA (million tonnes per annum) petrochemical refinery of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) comes up in Mangalore.

A new refinery with a processing capacity of 15 MTPA will increase the traffic of the port by, at least, 20 MTPA.

Mr Subir Raha, Chairman of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, on Wednesday announced the setting up of another 15-MTPA refinery in Mangalore.

This is in addition to the MRPL's decision to increase the capacity of the present refinery from 9.69 million tonnes to 15 million tonnes (mt). The capacity expansion and the establishment of a second refinery will make MRPL a 30-MTPA plant.

Of the 33.89-mt cargo handled by the port during 2004-05, MRPL's cargo stood at 19.82 mt.

With this, New Mangalore Port stood second in POL (petroleum, oil and lubricant) traffic handling among the other major ports in the country. Kandla port handled 22 mt of POL last fiscal.

Sources in the New Mangalore Port Trust told Business Line that the capacity expansion of the refinery to 15 mt could provide a cargo of 22 mt to the port.

This includes the import of 15 mt of crude and exports of 7 mt of refined products.

Similarly, another refinery of 15 MTPA capacity may help in handling another 20 mt to 22 mt of cargo.

They said that the second refinery at Mangalore would take the port to the top position in POL traffic.

The number of vessels that handled MRPL cargo stood at 234 during 2002-03.

This increased to 312 vessels in 2003-04 and 399 in 2004-05. Many more vessels may call the port if another refinery comes at the port, sources said.

Asked if the ONGC has made any request for additional berths at the port, they said the ONGC authorities are yet to approach the port for this.

The port is ready to provide any facility to its users, they added.

MRPL had surpassed its rated capacity of 9.69 mt after ONGC took over the company in 2003.

Of the 26.67-mt of traffic handled during 2003-04, MRPL contributed a major chunk with 16.39 mt.

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