The Hindu Business Line : Crude carrier to dock at Kochi Refinery mooring

Kochi, Jan. 1 For the first time a very large crude carrier (VLCC) carrying 2.8 lakh tonne of crude worth Rs 700 crore would be docking at the single point mooring (SPM) of the BPCL-KRL off the Puthyvypeen Island near here in the last week of January.

The VLCC would be loading 1.4 lakh tonne of crude each from Saudi Arabia and Qatar for the refinery. The total sailing time is six days.

Following the setting up of the SPM the number of vessels carrying crude for the refinery would be reduced to 70 per annum from 110 which would further come down to 55 to 60 from next fiscal. With this KRL would make a saving of Rs 150 crore a year on transportation cost from 2008-09, Mr E. Nandakumar, Executive Director, BPCL-KRL, told Business Line on Tuesday.

The first Suezmax Crude Carrier anchored on December 15 at the SPM 19.4 km off the Puthuvypeen Island after the trial pumping on December 3. The project was completed at a cost of around Rs 800 crore.

Hitherto, the refinery was receiving crude — from Bombay High and through imports — at the Crude Oil Terminal of the Cochin Port Trust and using tankers of up to 70,000 tonne due to draft limitation of the Cochin channel. This resulted in higher transportation costs for refinery, especially when the crude was sourced from far off sources, he said.

The crude arrival will go up after the capacity expansion of the KRL, from 7.5 million tonne per annum (mtpa) to 9.5 mtpa, is completed in 2009, he added.