Kolkata Port Trust undertakes ship-to-ship operation of BPCL LPG
Due to the strategically advantageous location, HDC has witnessed incremental demand from trade in terms of catering to LPG, imported POL products and other liquid cargo.
New Delhi: For the first time in major ports, the Kolkata Dock System (KDS) of Sysma Prasad Mookerjee Port Kolkata undertakes the Ship-to-Ship operation of BPCL LPG at Sandheads. To obviate the inherent channel constraints, SMP Kolkata has endeavoured to open up opportunity for importers to bring in Cape Size or Baby Cape vessels at the deep drafted anchorages located at Sagar, Sandheads and X Point and enable handling of fully laden dry bulk vessels through deployment of Floating Cranes or ship cranes. Over the years good number of dry bulk vessels have been handled at the lighterage points.
As a result of this pioneering initiative, the first ever STS Operations of LPG in Indian Coast was undertaken by BPCL on 15th October, 2021. BPCL engaged service provider M/s Fendercare Marine to render the services at the offshore STS location.
Due to the strategically advantageous location, HDC has witnessed incremental demand from trade in terms of catering to LPG, imported POL products and other liquid cargo.
The gradual increase in the volumes of LPG imports at HDC is placed below:
Quantity of LPG imports at HDC in MT :
FY 2016-17 : 20,22,520
FY 2017-18 : 24,90,374
FY 2018-19: 34,61,547
FY 2019-20: 40,16,894
FY 2020-21: 48,48,193
Several discussions with the senior management of the Oil Manufacturing Companies like BPCL, IOCL, HPCL and other leading private importers of LPG and other liquid products pointed to the intrinsic benefits that can be harnessed through extending the facility of Ship–to-Ship Transfer (STS) of LPG/ Liquid Cargo at the Deep drafted anchorage points of SMP, Kolkata. The Single Port Handling would not only enable to overcome draft restriction at Haldia thereby negating dead freight but also help in mobilization of more cargo thereby reducing unit costs.
The STS Operation for BPCL was earlier done at Male and by doing STS Operation at HDC, BPCL will save valuable foreign exchange. This Operation at HDC reduces the time taken for a daughter vessel by 7-9 days from BPCL’s other location for STS operations which consequently entailing savings of around US $ 3,50,000 per voyage on account of BPCL.
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