MRPL on a mission to fill oil caverns

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) is playing an active role in filling the Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve Limited’s (ISPRL) underground crude oil caverns at Permude in Mangaluru and Padur facilities.

Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG), Government of India, has mandated M/S ISPRL to work closely with public sector oil companies, including the MRPL, to achieve the target of filling up Mangaluru and Padur caverns by taking advantage of the prevailing very low crude oil prices in the international market.

The crude oil cargos of varying volumes from 1 million barrels to 2 million barrels, being sourced by the MRPL, IOCL and BPCL, will be unloaded in Single Point Mooring (SPM) of the MRPL falling under the jurisdiction of NMPT during the months of April and May before the onset of monsoon in the region.

MRPL MD M Venkatesh confirmed that the first consignment of 2 million barrels by the MRPL and the second consignment of 1 million Barrel by the IOCL has already been successfully unloaded into the caverns.

The ISPRL has stated that taking advantage of the low crude oil prices, it has started filling India’s Strategic Petroleum Reserves to enhance the energy security of the nation.

The MRPL, IOCL, BPCL and HPCL are associated in this exercise to fill the three SPR’s located at Vishakapatnam, Mangaluru and Padur.

The MRPL’s role is crucial in filling the 1.5 million metric tonnes facility in Mangaluru and 2.5 million metric tonnes facility at Padur as it extends its SPM and Booster station facilities for this activity.

The MRPL’s SPM (Single Point Mooring) facility, which is located 17 kilometres away from shore and within NMPT jurisdiction, in the Arabian sea will be utilised to pump crude oil from ships of different size including VLCC vessels ( Very large Crude Carriers).

Crude discharged from the ship through the SPM and subsea pipeline (17 Km) reaches the MRPL Booster station located at the landfall point. From the Booster station, the crude is routed through the crude oil pipeline to Mangaluru ISPRL cavern located within MSEZL or through the booster pump to caverns located in Padur (Udupi district) which is around 30 km away.

Venkatesh said that the MRPL was sustaining the Refinery operations at 50% capacity to meet the critical demand of LPG and ensuring availability of petrol and diesel as to all oil marketing companies in this hour of crisis.