Ahmedabad, Mar 8 (IANS): Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) has signed an agreement with Indian Oil Corp Ltd (IOCL) towards augmentation of IOC's crude oil volumes at Mundra.

IOCL shall expand its existing Crude Oil Tank Farm at APSEZ's Mundra Port, thus enabling it to handle and blend additional 10 MMTPA crude oil at Mundra. This will support IOCL's expansion of its Panipat Refinery (Haryana). IOCL is raising the capacity at its Panipat Refinery by 66 per cent to 25 MMPTA to meet India's rapidly growing energy requirements.

"Mundra Port is a major economic gateway that serves the northern hinterland of India by providing multimodal connectivity. It gives us immense pride to strengthen our partnership further and support IOCL, which plays a vital role in ensuring the energy security of the nation. As IOCL's trusted long-term partner, APSEZ is well equipped to handle the additional 10 MMTPA crude oil at our existing single buoy mooring (SBM) at Mundra," said Karan Adani, CEO and Whole Time Director of APSEZ.

IOCL, which accounts for nearly half of India's petroleum products' market share, has a refining capacity of 80.55 MMTPA and over 15,000 KM of pipeline network. Part of IOCL's current crude oil requirement of 15 MMTPA for its Panipat Refinery is handled at the SBM at Mundra Port. The Mundra SBM is located 3-4 km off the coast where Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) unload crude oil. An undersea pipeline then transports this crude oil from SBM to the Crude Oil Tank Farm and thereafter to the refinery at Panipat via the Mundra Panipat Pipeline (MPPL).

IOCL is currently operating a crude oil tank farm in an exclusive area in Adani's Mundra Special Economic Zone, consisting of 12 tanks with a total capacity of 720,000 KL. The addition of 9 new tanks will augment the storage capacity to 1,260,000 KL, thus making Mundra Port by far the largest port based crude oil storage facility for IOCL. This shall be accompanied by augmentation of the MPPL pipeline capacity by IOCL to 17.5 MMTPA. IOCL Board had approved a capital expenditure of Rs 9,000 crore for the crude oil tanks and MPPL augmentation in December 2021.

This expansion project at Mundra Port underlines the trust of state-run IOCL in APSEZ, earned through its strategic approach of modernizing its ports, improving turnaround time, and thus creating value for its customers.