BORL to double capacity at Vadinar COT to augment expansion plans.

Bharat Oman Refineries Limited (BORL), a joint venture between Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and Oman Oil Company, operating a refinery in Bina, Madhya Pradesh, proposes to double storage capacity at its crude oil terminal (COT) near Vadinar in Jamnagar district of Gujarat in order to augment its expansion plans. In the process it also hopes to cut down on demurrage cost.

Bina refinery was commissioned in January 2011 at an investment of Rs. 12,500 crore and is currently working at 100 per cent refining capacity of six million tonnes per annum. The company imports crude oil from the Gulf countries which is brought in Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC), and pumped ashore by the ship's pumps through a Single Point Mooring (SPM) and sub-sea pipeline to its COT off the village of Vadinar. Currently crude oil is stored in eight tanks each of 60,000 cubic meter capacity at the COT from where it is pumped across to Bina, through the cross-country 935-km pipeline.

The company has proposed to added eight additional storage tanks of 60,000 cubic meter capacity to overcome future storage difficulties. Besides this BORL also plans to to include other ancillary facilities such as a blending plant and an interconnection to the neighbouring Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) Terminal. Crudes require to be blended for refinery production, but due to limitation of space at the Bina Refinery the company has now decided to have the blending unit at the Vadinar COT spread over 167 hectare land.

BS