MRPL commissions SPM

It will decongest New Mangalore Port and help ISPRL, says chairman

The Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) commissioned its much awaited single point mooring (SPM) station alongwith a coastal booster pumping station, about 16 kms from the shore within the port limits, two weeks ago.

(An SPM is a loading buoy anchored offshore. It serves as a mooring point and interconnect for ships loading or offloading crude.)

Informing the same to media persons, soon after the 25th annual general meeting at MRPL premises on Monday, MRPL Chairman Sudhir Vasudeva said that the SPM, built with an investment of Rs 1,044 crore, has draft availability of 30 metres and can easily receive Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC). It was supposed to have been commissioned in January 2013.

In fact, the first consignment of 87,611 MT of Arab Extra Light Crude was completely discharged through the new SPM on August 30.

Stating that the facility will enable the company to receive crude in VLCC vessels from West African and Latin American countries, Vasudeva said the SPM facility will also decongest the existing jetty facilities at New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) and reduce the incidence of demurrage.

“The SPM will also be advantageous to the Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve Limited (ISPRL) for their underground crude oil cavern.

Highest turnover

Stating that the MRPL processed the highest ever crude of 14.4 MMT and posted the highest ever gross turnover of Rs 68,834 crore in 2012-13, Vasudeva said the MRPL achieved the fiat despite the unscheduled 8 days of shutdown due to acute water shortage in April 2012.

On the other hand, noting depreciation of the value of Rupee almost by 33 per cent from Rs 51 / USD at the end of March 2012 to an all-time low of Rs 68 at the end of August 2013, Vasudeva said the company is naturally hedged to a great extent as it exports roughly 47 per cent of the total production volume, realising the sales in USD.

“Another challenge faced by the company arose out of stoppage of Iran crude import,” he said and added that the sanctions from UN / US / EU on Iran and the fallout of the same with respect to payment, insurance for cargo, insurance for vessels and availability of vessels to perform Iranian voyages, made it almost impossible to lift crude oil from Iran.

However, the MRPL mitigated the risks by diversifying the sources of procurement by enlarging the crude purchase basket and increased procurement of spot crude, he said and added that at present, in addition to Iran, crudes are being procured from Saudi Aramco (National Oil Company of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), ADNOC (National Oil Company of Government of Abu Dhabi) and Kuwait Petroleum Corporation under term contract. At the same time, it sources crude on spot basis from Nigeria, Angola and Egypt etc.

Phase III

The total cost commitment for Project Phase III was Rs 10,938 crore and the cumulative expenditure incurred till August 31 is Rs 10,487 crore. “As on August 15, 2013, the overall physical progress is 99 per cent against the scheduled target of 100 per cent. “All the process units and the downstream units have achieved mechanical completion including the Petrochemical Fluidized Catalytic Cracking Unit (PFCCU), Delayed Coker Unit (DCU) and Sulphur Recovery Units (SRUs). “The units are awaiting uninterrupted steam and power from captive power plant-III, for pre-commissioning and commissioning activities,” he said and added that the captive power plant may be ready by December or latest by March.

MRPL Managing Director P P Upadhya, Director (Technical) V B Joshi and Director (Finance) Vishnu Agrawal were present.