Paradip Port Trust is upset over Indian Oil Corporation’s decision to import LNG through Dhamra port.
According to an MoU signed between IOC and Dhamra Port Company Ltd (DPCL), the Tata Steel-L&T joint venture that runs the port, the first phase facility will be to handle five million tonnes (mt) of LNG annually.
“We feel strongly about it and have taken it up with appropriate authorities,” says a spokesman for PPT.
“The refinery is being set up next door and it is unfortunate that IOC authorities should choose far off Dhamra port bypassing the neighbouring Paradip port which has promised all the facilities they might need”.
The crude handling capacity at Paradip port, it is pointed out, is being augmented substantially. One 10-mtpa single point mooring is already functioning and two more each of the capacity of 11-mtpa are to be commissioned shortly.
What has been particularly upsetting for PPT authorities is that part of the LNG to be imported through Dhamra will be transported back by pipeline to Paradip to meet the refinery’s own requirement. Is it a rational approach? Will it not add to the cost unnecessarily? asks the spokesman. An estimated 2.5 million tonnes of import will be used to meet IOC’s own requirements at Paradip and Haldia and the balance to meet industrial demand in and around Odisha.
The spokesman also draws attention to the space problem at Dhamra. The port authorities will need additional land to create facilities for a regassification plant and to set up a huge sterile zone. “The port authorities are believed to be scouting for land and have approached the state government for an additional 150 acres for the proposed LNG terminal,” it is observed.
The Dhamra port sources, when contacted, feel that Paradip port which already has huge captive traffic such as thermal coal for coastal movement, imported coal, crude, raw materials for fertilisers for two major fertiliser plants and various other cargoes should not resent IOC ‘s plan to import LNG through Dhamra. “Besides, choice of Dhamra in preference to Paradip is IOC’s,” sources observe.
Meanwhile, in November, PPT handled 4.89 mt of traffic as compared to 3.62 mt in the same month last year, thus posting more than 35 per cent jump in throughput.