The single buoy mooring (SBM) project of Kochi
Refineries is expected to take off in August 2005 with the likely award of the
Rs.3 crore contract for construction of the site office and warehouse at
Puthuvypeen. The Kochi Port Trust handed over land for the project on 31 July
2005. Tendering and procurement is reportedly underway.
Project Scope &
Significance:
The project scope covers
construction of:
- Single Point Mooring (SPM)
19.4 km off the Puthuvypeen lighthouse for handling VLCCs of 300,000 tonne
capacity;
- submarine pipeline to carry
crude oil from the SPM to a Shore Tank Farm (STF);
- Shore tank farm for storage
of 240,000 kilo litres of crude oil at Puthuvypeen Coast, before it is
pumped to the KRL refinery at Ambalamugal; and
- Onshore Pipeline between
the STF and KRL of about 10 km
The SBM project is crucial for
KRL to reduce the cost of transportation of crude, especially at a time when the
company is expanding capacity from 7.5 million tpa to 9.5 million tpa. KRL
receives crude from Bombay High and imports at the Crude Oil Terminal (COT) of
the Cochin Port Trust and uses tankers of up to 70,000 million tonnes due to
draft limitation of the Cochin channel. This results in higher transportation
costs for KRL, especially when the crude is sourced from far off sources. Using
very large crude carriers (VLCCs) would substantially reduce the cost of crude
for KRL.
The STF is being set up on 70 hectares taken on
lease from Cochin Port Trust. The facilities envisaged at the STF are three
79-metre diameter crude oil tanks, booster pumps for pumping the crude oil from
the STF to the refinery, which is 24 km away, an effluent treatment plant,
fire-fighting facilities, rainwater harvesting, a green belt etc.
The approved cost of the entire project is around
Rs 623 crore (December 2002 basis). Initially I was to implemented on a lump sum
turnkey contract basis and global tenders were floated in mid-2004 for two
packages. As the cost based on the lowest bid was much in excess of the
estimated cost, it was decided to implement the project on a conventional
(engineering and procurement by owner and erection by contractor) basis. (See
Related News)
Intek Engineering, Malaysia along with their
associate FACT Engineering and Design Organisation (FEDO), was appointed Project
Management Consultant in March 2005. The revised project cost will be taken up
for clearance in the BPCL board meeting later in August 2005. (KRL is a
subsidiary of BPCL)
KRL has obtained the clearances from the Kerala
State Pollution Control Board, the Union environment ministry and the Site
Appraisal Committee of the Kerala Government for setting up all the facilities.
In-principle approvals have been obtained from the Indian Navy, the Cochin Port
Trust, the Coast Guard, the Cochin Corporation and Greater Cochin Development
Authority.
The target date of completion of the project is
by May 2007.
Also See:
Kochi
Refineries' SBM project to cost more (25-May-05)