IOC commissions oil jetty at Paradip refinery

State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) today said it has commissioned an oil jetty at its Paradip refinery in Odisha as it sequentially commissions units of the Rs  34,555 crore refinery.

The South Oil Jetty, which will be used to import and export of oil at high sea, was dedicated to the nation by Shipping and Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari at Paradip, a company press release said here.

"To facilitate 15 million tonnes a year Paradip refinery, IOC has set up the oil jetty along with associated facilities at Paradip Port Trust," it said.

A single berth is provided for loading of products and unloading of crude oil. One crude pipeline, eight product pipelines (petrol, diesel, naphtha, dual purpose kerosene, propylene and propylene vapour) and 3 utilities pipelines are laid from South Oil Jetty to Paradip Refinery.

Two unloading arms for crude and eight loading arms for products are also installed at Jetty top.

"Based on the maximum offtake from the refinery and the average ship sizes, about 212 ships can be loaded from the South Jetty per year," the statement said.

Built at cost of Rs 34,555 crore, the refinery is designed to process broad basket of crude including cheaper high sulphur heavy crudes and has an overall Nelson complexity factor of 12.2.

The refinery is capable to produce Euro-IV / Euro-V quality transportation fuel.

IOC is sequentially commissioning units at the giant refinery and the entire facility will be commissioned by the year end.