The Hindu Business Line : Dutch co to supply mooring, allied systems to Kochi Refineries

KOCHI Refineries Ltd (KRL) has placed orders worth around Rs 50 crore with the Amsterdam-based Blue Water Energy System (BWES) for supplying Single Point Mooring (SPM) and allied systems for its project in the nearby Puthuvypeen Island.

Since it is a specialised job, only three foreign companies had participated in the global tender and among them BWES had turned out to be the technically eligible lowest bidder, Mr E. Nandakumar, General Manager (Projects), told Business Line on Wednesday.

BWES would complete the supply of SPM and allied systems by the year-end. However, the installation and anchoring of the floating buoy at a depth of 30 metres for mooring large tankers and for receiving crude through floating hoses, under buoy hoses and the 48-inch submarine pipeline to the shore tanks would be done by the company which would win the contract for laying the pipeline, he said.

It would be anchored 19.4 km off Puthuvypeen lighthouse in the Arabian Sea for handling Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC) of 3-lakh tonne capacity. A submarine pipeline of 48-inch diameter will carry crude oil from SPM to Shore Tank Farm (STF).

Bids for laying the pipeline are yet to be opened and after opening them a bidders' meeting would be called, Mr Nandakumar said, adding that this work would be awarded next month. The pipeline laying work involves 30-inch onshore pipeline between STF and KRL pipeline corridor over a length of about 10 km including backwater crossing of about 4 km.

Meanwhile, the Mumbai-based Geotech, which had been awarded the Rs 40-crore contract for the construction of STF for storage of 2,40,000 kl crude oil at Puthuvypeen Coast and site office and other facilities, has commenced the construction work.

SPM unit must: Setting up of the SPM facility at a total cost of around Rs 600 crore had become inevitable for the refineries to reduce the transportation cost of crude especially at a time when Kochi Refineries is expanding its capacity from the present 7.5 million tonnes per annum to 9.5 mtpa. The targeted completion of the project was by May 2007, he said. At present, the company is receiving the crude oil from Bombay High as well as from other countries at the Crude Oil Terminal of Cochin Port Trust by deploying limited capacity tankers up to 70,000 million tonnes due to draft limitation at Cochin channel. This results in higher transportation costs, especially when crude is sourced from far off countries like Nigeria.

By making use of VLCC, the cost of crude can be substantially reduced and it is estimated that the company would make a saving of around Rs 200 crore on transportation cost.