The Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), Great Eastern Shipping Company (Gesco), Varun Shipping and Essar Shipping are in the race to bag a contract for transporting petroleum products on the Indian coast.
Responding to a tender floated by the Indian Oil Corporation on behalf of the oil industry, these shipping heayweights, along with other minor players, have submitted bids for supplying 44 ships.
The ships will also carry petroleum products for Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation. The tender has specified a requirement of 30 ships of various sizes from 6,000 to 55,000 dead weight tonnes.
"The IOC tender has received an excellent response considering that 44 ships have been offered against the requirement of 30," sources said.
SCI has offered the maximum number of ships at 13, followed by Gesco which has offered 12. Essar has offered five, while Varun, Amer Ship Management and Pratibha Shipping have offered three ships each. Century Shipping an
