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Pratim Ranjan Bose

Kolkata, Oct. 28 The current continued reduction in navigable depth of Haldia Port may affect refining operations of Indian Oil Corporation at Haldia, Barauni (Bihar) and Bongaigaon (Assam) . Being the main source of refined products in the region, any disruption in the operations of IOC refineries is bound to affect product availability.

The problem will intensify if IOC’s proposed shift of port operations to Paradip in Orissa for procurement of crude in the region is delayed further. The Rs 1,178-crore project, including a SPM and the pipeline between Paradip and Haldia in Bengal, has been delayed by more than two years and is now expected to be fully commissioned in December.

IOC procures its entire crude requirement for refineries at Haldia (7.5 million tonnes), Barauni (6 million tonnes), Bongaigaon (2 million tonnes) through Haldia port.

The port is losing navigable depth by almost a metre a month and the average draft is lower than the minimum required for sea fearing vessels.

Sources in IOC say that lack of draft has brought down the average parcel load per vessel from 40-45,000 tonnes during July-September this year to approximately 20-25,000 tonnes requiring more ships for carrying the same cargo.

Apart from leading to a sharp rise in transportation cost impacting the refining margins, this has brought down the crude inventory position of the three refineries .

Considering a daily intake of 18,000 tonnes of crude, Haldia refinery has just about 2-3 days of inventory, which is lower than the company average of 11 days.

“The situation has come to such a pass that if port operations remain closed for a day or two we may have to step down refinery throughput,” a source said.

“If the draft goes down further our refinery operations may be seriously impacted,” an IOC official said.

Apart from IOC, the operations of Numaligarh Refinery (NRL) in Assam, Haldia Petrochemicals (HPL) and Mitsubishi PTA would also be impacted . While NRL brings part of its crude requirement through Haldia port, HPL is dependent on the port for the entire feedstock requirement.

More Stories on : Outlook | Petroleum | West Bengal

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