HMEL to set up SBM near Mundra

Mittal Energy-HPCL JV to invest Rs 650 crore for setting up Single Buoy Mooring.

HPCL-Mittal Energy Limited (HMEL) is planning to set up a single point mooring (SPM) in Mundra region with an estimated investment of Rs 650 crore. The company has approached the state's maritime regulator, Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) for necessary clearances for the project.

The company has identified Luni region in east of Mundra, said sources close to the development.

HMEL is a joint venture between Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) and Mittal Energy Investment Pte Ltd, Singapore - a Lakshmi N Mittal group company for setting up a grassroot oil refinery at Bhatinda in Punjab. HPCL-Mittal combine would lay a 1,012 km crude oil pipeline from Mundra to Bhatinda refinery.

HMEL is currently using Adani's SPM or Single Buoying Mooring as crude receipt facility. The capacity of Adani's SBM is 9 MMTPA. "The capacity of HMEL's proposed SPM is 18 MMTPA," sources said. The depth at Luni is about 28-30 meters, which is ideal for setting up an SPM, sources added.

Last year, HPCL, Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation, Geoglobal Resources and Jubilant Group had discovered oil reserves in a well Miroli 1 at an offshore block in the Cambay basin.

In the recent NELP-VII bidding, a consortia of HPCL- Mittal Energy, OIL and HOEC had emerged winners for the Rajasthan block.

The Bhatinda refinery project called Guru Gobind Singh Refinery is expected to be completed by early 2011.

The project had earlier got delayed for about a decade for various reasons including lack of strategic partner, has been put on a fast track since the entry of Mittal last year. Till then, HPCL had already invested about Rs 500 crore in the refinery, sources said. Mittal Investments picked up 49 per cent stake in the refinery for an investment of Rs 3,200 crore.

Government officials say there will be an additional eight SBMs—including the one being proposed by HMEL-- installed along Gujarat's coast taking the total tally to 15. At present, seven SBM pipelines are already operational in the state.

Players like Reliance, Essar, Adani, Bharat Oman Refinery among others are planning to set up SBMs along Gujarat coast.

In order to facilitate import through very large crude carriers (VLCC), several petroleum companies are now planning to install Single Buoy Mooring (SBM), a kind of unloading platform in the ocean (around 3-4 km off the coast) where oil tankers can unload their crude, which is then transpored to the coast through an under-sea pipeline and to the refinery through a land pipeline.

HPCL-Mittal Energy along with Total SA of France have lined up Rs 32,000 crore investment in petroleum, chemical and petrochemical investment region (PCPIR) in Vishakhapatnam-East Godavari region in Andhra Pradesh. The consortium will set up a 15 mmtpa refining-cum-petrochemical complex at the Andhra Pradesh SEZ within the region.