The Hindu Business Line : MRPL will export fuel to Mauritius from August

Supply pact: The Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr Murli Deora, and the ONGC Chairman and Managing Director, Mr R.S. Sharma, at the signing of an agreement in the Capital on Friday between MRPL and the State Trading Corporation of Mauritius. —

Our Bureau

New Delhi, July 6 Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), a subsidiary of ONGC, will export fuel worth $2 billion to Mauritius over a three-year period starting August. For this, MRPL on Friday signed an agreement with the State Trading Corporation (STC) of Mauritius.

Speaking at the occasion, Mr R.S. Sharma, Chairman and Managing Director of ONGC, and Chairman MRPL, said that MRPL’s 9.69-million tonne (mt) refinery will export one mt per annum during the period.

Last June, MRPL had for the first time entered into a term deal with STC for export of petrol, diesel, aviation turbine fuel (ATF), and fuel oil. The one-year contract expires this month-end and would be replaced by this three year contract, from August 2007 to July 2010. “The total value of the three-year contract is $2 billion,” Mr Sharma said.

Export line-up

MRPL will export 90,000 tonnes of petrol, 3,50,000 tonnes of diesel, 2,60,000 tonnes of ATF, and about 3-lakh tonnes of fuel oil per annum. MRPL was looking at using Mauritius as base for exporting fuel into Africa. “We are examining the possibility,” Mr Sharma said.

MRPL is expanding its capacity to 15 MTPA at an investment of Rs 8,000 crore and most of the products would be exported, he added.

The products imported by STC from MRPL, are sold to local oil companies in Mauritius — Shell (Mauritius), Total Mauritius Ltd, Caltex Oil (Mauritius) Ltd, and Indian Oil (Mauritius) Ltd. Apart from Mauritius, MRPL exports 1.5 mt of fuel to Emirate National Oil Company of Dubai.

In his presentation, the visiting Mauritius Minister for Industries and Commerce, Mr Rajesh Jeetah, said his country would be importing its entire fuel needs from MRPL. “We will rely totally on India for our energy supplies for the next few years,” he said. Mauritius also plans to rope in MRPL for building storage capacities for petroleum products in that country.

The Petroleum Minister, Mr Murli Deora, said “long term contract being signed today will provide long term assurance and comfort to Mauritius on continued availability of strategic and sensitive petroleum products.”

Jet fuel pact

MRPL Managing Director, Mr R. Rajamani, said the company has tied up with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd for using its jet fuel facilities at airports in Bangalore, Goa and Calicut for selling the fuel to airlines. MRPL was also in talks with Jet Airways, Air India and Kingfisher Airlines for long-term supply of ATF.

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