Ioc, Mundra Port In Pact For Crude Handling

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has inked an agreement with Mundra port for utilising its infrastructure for import of crude for its upcoming Panipat refinery. The tenure of the agreement is 28 years.

Under the agreement, Mundra port will built a single-point mooring system capable of berthing very large crude oil carriers with a carrying capacity of around 300,000 tonnes. The mooring system will be operated and maintained by Mundra port.

A crude terminal will be constructed, operated and maintained by IOC. The terminal will be constructed on 152 acres of land leased from the port, while crude will be transferred through 17 km of marine and onshore pipes to the terminal.

Mundra port will also grant rights to IOC for laying a 67 km long pipeline from the crude terminal to the Kandla-Bhatinda pipeline through its Mundra-Adipur rail corridor.

The single-point mooring system is a floating platform with connections to pipelines for berthing very large crude oil carriers. These carriers offer significant marine freight savings over Suezmax tankers.

In the initial phase, the single-point mooring system will handle up to 7.5 million tonnes of crude to meet the future requirements of IOC refineries in north and west India.

With this agreement, Mundra port joins the select group of commercial ports in India such as Kandla and Paradip, where crude is handled through single-point mooring systems.