Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemcial today received the first parcel of crude oil from Cairn India's prolific Rajasthan fields.
The 208,000 barrels or 29,000-tonnes parcel of crude from the Cairn's Mangala field in the Barmer district was transported by road to Kandla port in Gujarat and loaded on a Singapore-flagged vessel, Cougar, and brought to Mangalore, Cairn and MRPL said in identical separate press statements.
"A simple ceremony marked the historic occasion. A crystal bottle of the crude was handed over by Captain Pillai, DGM Marine Operations and Regional Manager of Cairn India to MRPL Managing Director U K Basu," they said.
MRPL, which started processing the oil from today, is likely to receive about 0.2 million tonnes of Mangala crude oil this year and it will get 0.4 million tonnes next year.
After the company expands the refinery to 15 million tonnes by 2012, MRPL will be able to process more of such crude, the statement said.
MRPL had in 2003 received the first oil from ONGC Videsh Ltd's Sudan fields and then in 2006 got a parcel from Sakhalin-1 fields in Russia.
