State owned Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited expects to save over INR 180 crore annually with the commissioning of its single point mooring berth at Visakhapatnam port. The berth, which commenced operations recently, has been up by HPCL along with Vizag port with an investment of INR 650 crore.

HPCL uses Vizag port to import crude oil about 10 million tonnes every year for its Visakha Refinery.

Mr PAB Raju executive director of HPCL said the earlier berth at Vizag port could handle only up to 150,000 tonne capacity ship tankers to unload crude oil. As a result, HPCL had to hire only small capacity ships to import crude oil, the freight charges of which were very high in the international market.

But, if the crude oil is imported through VLCCs (very large crude carriers) that can carry between 250,000 and 300,000 tonnes, the freight charges come down substantially. To overcome this problem, HPCL invested in setting up the SPM berth.

(Sourced from BS)