KoPT plans to roll out tandem lighterage

Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) will soon offer lighterage facility for crude oil and petroproducts by 'tandem' operation at the Sandheads, 232 kilometres away from Kolkata, to service ultra and very large carriers.

Dr Anup Chanda, chairman of KoPT, said the port authority has held meetings with Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) with the offer to start off the operation.

"We met IOC and SCI officials couple of days back and it was decided to carry out the tandem operation for lighterage of crude and petroleum products at Sandheads provided contractual obligations are met," Chanda told the media at Haldia. No confirmation could be obtained from IOC or SCI.

Representative of National Ship Design Research Centre (NSDRC), Vishakhapatnam, were also present in the meeting with the oil giant. SCI has agreed to provide vessels of appropriate size for carrying out the operation.

Chanda was in Haldia to attend official accreditation ceremony of Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) for ISO 9001 certification. The certificate was handed over by J C Anand of Indian Registrar of Shipping to Shatrughan Sinha, Union minister for shipping, in the presence of West Bengal commerce and industry minister Nirupam Sen, HDC deputy chairman M L Meena and member of Parliament Lakshman Seth.

IOC had asked NSDRC to carry out a study on tandem operation at Sandheads. The centre had indicated that capital expenditure of Rs 13.6 crore would be required for necessary equipment. However, KoPT felt the cost estimate was unreasonably high and, along with IOC, has asked NSDRC to work out the cost once again.

SCI, on the other hand, agreed to give a daughter vessel of around 50,000 tonne for lighterage operation on long term basis. IOC has offered to charter the vessel for 15 years, Chanda said.

Presently, lighterage was being done using much smaller daughter vessels of 20,000-25,000 tonne capacity. KoPT was aiming to attract very and ultra large crude carriers of capacity of upto 4.5 lakh tonne to Sandheads because of availability of 50 metre draft.

Larger daughter vessels, suitable for tandem operation, were required to evacuate crude and product in a fast and cost effective manner from large ships. Lighterage was now carried out in 'alongside' mode in fair weather only.

Tandem lighterage service would be in competition with the proposal put forward by IOC to lay a pipeline from Paradip to Haldia for carrying crude. If built, the pipeline will rob KoPT of liquid cargo of over 10 million tonne annually to Paradip.

IOC, the largest petroleum cargo importer, would use the pipeline then to transport its crude requirement for Haldia, Paradip, Barauni refineries from Paradip.

Earlier, IOC considered the option to build a floating storage offtake (FSO) at Sandheads. On a like to like basis, the cost of handling crude through pipeline at Paradip would be Rs 240 per tonne compared to Rs 300 via Sandheads by FSO.

KoPT claimed that if the tandem operation could be done successfully, the cost can come down to even less than Rs 200 per tonne. It would take three years to build a pipeline from Paradip to Haldia.

If KoPT failed to establish tandem lighterage as the more cost effective option via Sandheads, it would lose the cargo by that time.