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Minister Veerappa Moily dedicates SPM to nation at MRPL

Oil Industry Development Board (OIDB) Joint Secretary L N Gupta has said that Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve Limited (ISPRL) crude oil storage facilities in Mangalore and at Padur in Udupi would be commissioned in August 2014.

 The two reserves, along with another storage in Vishakhapatnam can store 5 million metric tonne (MMT) of crude oil. He was interacting with press persons at the inaugural function of MRPL’s (Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd) Single Point Mooring (SPM) system and allied facilities at Tannirbavi in  Mangalore on Saturday. The construction of the proposed strategic storage facilities is being managed by ISPRL, a special purpose vehicle, owned by OIDB.

Gupta explained that by the functioning of the three storage facilities, India could have 85 days’ of reserve crude oil from its current reserve of having facility for 70 days. The international standard crude oil reserve is 90 days.

The construction work has been progressing in all three locations in underground rock caverns as hydrocarbons are considered to be safe in caverns. While Padur will have a storage capacity of 2.5 MMT, storage in Vishakhapatanam will bear 1.33 MMT capacity and in Mangalore, it will be 1.5 MMT capacity.

Altogether, Rs 4,000 crore is the expenditure for the three storages, of which Rs 2,500 crore has already been spent. Excluding this, crude oil worth Rs 25,000 crore is required to fill in the three storages. 

Geological marvel

Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural gas, Veerappa Moily said that the work on the 9 km underground cavern at Mangalore SEZ is a geological marvel. Around 22.5 million tonnes of rock has been excavated for constructing the ’U’ shaped cavern. The total length of the underground cavern at Padur is 13 km whereas that of Mangalore is 9 kms and Vishakhapatnam is 7 kms. Though the construction work in Vishakhapatnam was commenced earlier, off late, it is Mangalore, which is nearing completion.

Moily dedicates SPM

Meanwhile, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Veerappa Moily on Saturday dedicated the Rs 1043.57 crore project - Single Point Mooring (SPM) and a coastal booster pumping station set up at Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) to the nation at  Tannirbavi here on Saturday.

The SPM set up at 17 km off Tannirbavi coast with a draft of 30 metres was commissioned in August 2013. The SPM is a loading buoy that serves as a mooring point and interconnect for tankers loading or unloading petroleum or other products.

Advantages of SPM

The SPM will enable MRPL to ship in crude parcels on Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC) which will provide freight economies’ and also optimise on logistics. This will also help MRPL to source West African and Latin American Crudes which provide cost advantages.

In spite of this, ISPRL storage facilities coming up in Mangalore SEZ and Padur will also benefit. Through SPM, 10,000 kilo litre crude oil can be discharged from the ship per hour.
 
“It will de-congest the berth facility at NMPT and the ship need not even require to anchor during discharging of the crude, but can rotate,” said MRPL MD, P P Upadhya. As off loading of petroleum products will take place in a swift manner, the waiting charges VLCC could be considerably reduced.

Mangalore MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, Mangalore North MLA Mohiyuddin Bava and MRPL MD P P Upadhya among others were present on the occasion.