IOCL to expand crude oil blending facility at APSEZ’s Mundra port

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) said on Tuesday it has inked an agreement with Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) to augment the state-run firm’s crude oil volumes at Mundra, enabling it to blend an additional 10 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) capacity of crude oil.

“IOCL shall expand its existing crude oil tank farm at APSEZ’s Mundra port, thus enabling it to handle and blend an additional 10 MTPA of crude oil at Mundra. This will support IOCL’s expansion of its Panipat refinery (Haryana). IOCL is raising the capacity at its Panipat refinery by 66 per cent to 25 MPTA, to meet India’s rapidly growing energy requirements,” APSEZ said in a statement.

Mundra port is a major economic gateway that serves the northern hinterland by providing multimodal connectivity, APSEZ CEO Karan Adani said, adding: “It gives us immense pride to strengthen our partnership further and support IOCL, which plays a vital role in ensuring the energy security of the nation. As IOCL’s trusted long-term partner, APSEZ is well equipped to handle the additional 10 MTPA crude oil at our existing single buoy mooring (SBM) at Mundra.”

IOCL, which accounts for nearly half of India’s petroleum products market share, has a refining capacity of 80.55 MTPA and over 15,000 km of pipeline network. Part of IOCL’s current crude oil requirement of 15 MTPA for its Panipat refinery is handled at the SBM at Mundra Port. The Mundra SBM is located 3-4 km off the coast where Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) unload crude oil. An undersea pipeline then transports this crude oil from SBM to the Crude Oil Tank Farm and, thereafter, to the refinery at Panipat via the Mundra Panipat Pipeline (MPPL).

IOCL currently operates a crude oil tank farm in an exclusive area in Adani’s Mundra Special Economic Zone, consisting of 12 tanks with a total capacity of 7,20,000 kilo litres (KL). The addition of nine new tanks will augment the storage capacity to 1,260,000 Kl, thus making Mundra port by far the largest port-based crude oil storage facility for IOCL. This will be accompanied by the augmentation of the MPPL pipeline’s capacity by IOCL to 17.5 mtpa.

The IOCL board had approved a capital expenditure of Rs 9,000 crore for the crude oil tanks and MPPL augmentation in December 2021. This expansion project at Mundra port underlines state-run IOCL’s trust in APSEZ, earned through its strategic approach of modernising its ports, improving turnaround times, and thus creating value for its customers.

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