IndianOil commissions oil jetty at Paradip refinery

The South Oil Jetty, which will be used to import and export oil at high sea, was dedicated to the nation by Shipping and Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari at Paradip, a company press release said here.

“To facilitate 15 million tonnes a year at Paradip refinery, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd  has set up the oil jetty along with associated facilities at Paradip Port Trust,” it said. A single berth is provided for loading of products and unloading of crude oil. 

The Installation of the 15 million <g data-gr-id="72">tonne-capacity</g> South Oil Jetty, built at a cost of Rs 222 crore for smooth movement of liquid cargo from Paradip Port, will lead to enhancement of Paradip Port’s cargo handling capacity to 123 million tonnes per annum (<g data-gr-id="71">mtpa</g>) from 108 million tonnes per annum. 

One crude pipeline, eight product pipelines (petrol, diesel, naphtha, dual purpose kerosene, propylene and propylene vapour) and three utilities pipelines are laid from South Oil Jetty to Paradip Refinery. 

Two unloading arms for crude and eight loading arms for products are also installed at Jetty top. “Based on the maximum offtake from the refinery and the average ship sizes, about 212 ships can be loaded from the South Jetty per year,” the statement said. Built at a cost of Rs 34,555 crore, the refinery is designed to process a broad basket of crude, including cheaper high sulphur heavy <g data-gr-id="74">crudes,</g> and has an overall Nelson complexity factor of 12.2.

The refinery is capable of producing Euro-IV / Euro-V quality transportation fuel. IOC is sequentially commissioning units at the giant refinery and the entire facility will be commissioned by the year-end. During the day, Gadkari inaugurated projects worth Rs 269 crore at Paradip Port here and said that a super-specialty hospital will be set up in the port town while a medical college is under consideration.   He dedicated the Draught Enhancement in the Central Dock and MCB to 14.5 m built at a cost of Rs 47 crore at the port.

This apart, during his visit to the port, the Minister laid the foundation stone of Rs 16 crore Dust Barrier System under Environmental Management Programme of the Centre and also laid the foundation of Rs 174 crore Capital Dredging of Iron Ore, Coal and Multi-purpose Clean Cargo Dock Basin and a plantation programme of about 20,000 saplings. 

“Both the oil jetty and draught enhancement facilities will add to the capacity of the Paradip Port,” Gadkari said while addressing a function. Announcing plans to establish a super-speciality hospital in the port town, he said setting up of a medical college could also be considered and urged the state government to provide adequate land for the purpose.

“We do not want to acquire land from farmers. The proposed project will come up on government land,” he said, adding that people in and around the port town would get better healthcare facilities once the medical college and hospital comes up in their area.

Describing himself as a trade union leader, Gadkari told port employees and others associated with port activities to maintain high standards of work culture in order to make Paradip Port the number one in the country. 

He added that the Government can provide employment to the people by setting up industries and appealed the people to cooperate in setting up different industries in Paradip area, which already has an oil refinery and other major projects.

Gadkari also distributed kits to school students and stressed on the Centre’s ‘Swach Bharat’ campaign, saying efforts should be made not to release polluted water discharged by different industries to the sea.