Adani Bunkering looks beyond Gulf of Kutch

To soon extend bunkering facilities to cater to ships calling at Mumbai, Goa and Kochi ports.

A year after its foray into bunkering services, Gujarat-based Adani Bunkering Services, part of Adani's flagship company Adani Exports, is planning to take its venture outside the Gulf of Kutch.

Along with the expansion planned at the Mundra port, the company will soon extend bunkering facilities to cater to ships calling at Mumbai, Goa and Kochi ports.

Having touched the 30,000- tonnes fuel capacity mark for its bunkering services which is the process of supplying a ship with fuel, Adani Bunkering is now setting sights on 50,000 tonne capacity by March 2008.

For this, the company is set to add two new double-hulled bunker tankers of 3000 tonne to its facility. Both are being constructed at Gujarat where one of them will be ready by the first week of January while the other will be functional by the second week of March 2008.

At present, the company has three hired barges of 400 tonne, 1,500 tonne and 1,350 tonne respectively. "We will be expanding our bunkering capacities to cater to very large crude carriers (VLCCs) calling at Sikka, Kandla, Vadinar, Bedi and other ports in the Gulf of Kutch where close to 3,000 vessels arrive every year," said Chandan Samaiyar, head of bunkering, Adani Bunkering Services.

He added that with the new barges, the company was targeting 1.2 million tonne of sales by March 2009.

On the planned extension of bunkering facilities to Mumbai, Goa and Kochi, Samaiyar said the company was still weighing options of whether to set up their own infrastructure at the ports or take facilities on lease. Investment for the expansion is yet to be worked out. So far, Rs 150 crore has been invested in the Adani's bunkering venture.

Operating from a special economic zone (SEZ), the company has been able to get the cost advantage.

"Unlike PSUs, who haven't been able to compete with international bunkering rates, Adani Bunkering has placed its spot bunker prices at just $8-10 more than the rates at Singapore and Fujairah, which are usually preferred over Indian ports due to the rate factor," added Samaiyar.