Crude flows through Paradip port; 2 mt throughput likely by March

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

30 Dec 2008

For the first time, the Paradip port has started handling crude. On Sunday, crude started flowing into the port for the first time. “We hope to handle an estimated two million tonnes of crude traffic in next three months”, Mr K. Raghuramaiah, Chairman of Paradip Port Trust, told Business Line over phone from Paradip. “So far we’ve been handling limited quantities of POL products but no crude”.
This follows trial run of IndianOil’s single point mooring (SPM) at the port. On Sunday, the crude tanker, “Jawaharlal Nehru”, belonging to Shipping Corporation of India, discharged nearly 70,000 tonnes of crude at the SPM for transportation by submersible pipeline to shore-based tankage.
From the tankage, the crude will be transported by pipeline to Haldia.
A 330-km long land-based pipeline network has been constructed to facilitate transportation of crude from Paradip to Haldia.
It might be noted that the commissioning of IndianOil’s SPM at Paradip has been delayed by several years due to one reason or other.
Once the SPM operation stabilises, the port, it is hoped, will post a big jump in traffic throughput.
In full year, the crude throughput in the port is likely to be around 10 million tonnes. However, the gain for Paradip port will be loss for Haldia dock which now stands to lose an estimated eight-nine million tonnes of crude traffic annually now that IndianOil will handle a sizeable quantity of crude at Paradip port for meeting the requirement of its refineries located at Haldia and Barauni.

Source: The Hindu Business Line