IOCL and Adani Ports to build nine crude oil tanks in Mundra port

Adani Port and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) and Indian Oil Corporation Lts (IOCL) have agreed to expand existing crude oil tank farms at APSEZ’s Mundra port with the aim of handling 10 million mt more crude per year.

PHOTO: Containers at Mundra port. Adani ports

IOCL expects this investment will support the expansion of its Panipat Refinery. The company aims to increase the storage capacity at Panipat by 66% to 25 million mt.

IOCL's petroleum products makes up about half of India's total, and it has a total capacity of 81 million mt per year, and a pipeline network of 15,000 kilometres.

Currently, around 15 million mt per year of the crude requirement at the Panipat is handled by Mundra’s port using single buoy mooring (SBM).

The SBM is located 3-4 kilometres off the coast where very large crude carriers (VLCCs) unload crude oil. An undersea pipeline then transports this crude oil from SBM to the crude oil tank farm, and thereafter to the refinery at Panipat via the Mundra Panipat Pipeline (MPPL), says Adani Ports.

IOCL is currently operating a crude oil tank farm in an exclusive area in Adani’s Mundra Special Economic Zone, consisting of 12 tanks with a total capacity of 4.5 million bbls, and with these additional nine tanks the capacity will increase to almost 7.9 million bbls.

Mundra Port is well equipped to handle the additional 10 million mt of crude oil, says APSEZ chief Karan Adani.