AST rolls out new IT solution for IOC Kandla
Vadodara-based Advanced Sys-tek (AST) has begun executing a Rs86cr ($10m) contract to fully upgrade IndianOil's Kandla import terminal with new IT and industrial solution systems.
Shirish Adi, AST managing director, tells us the company, founded by US-returned IT specialists Umed Fifadra and Mukesh Kapadia, has been an industrial IT solutions provider for over 35 years. At Kandla, AST is rolling out new IT systems to oversee petroleum products unloading and other processes, including 312 loading points distributed over 13 rail wagon gantries and 15 loading points over ten truck bays.
IndianOil awarded the LoA to AST on April 24 (2024) after it beat Vadodara-based ABB and wants work completed in 15 months. "We are executing one of the largest terminal IT projects at the (29m t/y) Dangote Refinery in Nigeria and have already executed projects in Ghana, Liberia and other countries," says managing director Adi.
"Locally, we are looking to expand our operations to the northeast; we commissioned the first Terminal Automation System (TAS) in the 1990s at the (IndianOil) Bongaigaon Refinery (in Assam)." He predicts the future is bright for AST because of upcoming tankage facility projects from Oil India and IndianOil, not to mention opportunities with Indradhanush Gas Grid's (IGGL's) upcoming gas pipeline network in the northeast.
AST is also entering other areas. One example is its Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) plan, designed to produce ASTBlue brand fluid that meets VDA standards, representing German car manufacturers.
"We received the VDA approval in 2023," adds Adi. DEF technology is used in modern BS-VI-compliant diesel engines to reduce harmful emissions and injected into the exhaust stream to convert harmful nitrogen oxide into harmless nitrogen and water vapour.
AST also has an overseas arm, Advanced Sys-tek LLC, with an office in Houston. Adi highlights that some of AST's products and software solutions are used abroad.
He continues that the company also manufactures flow computers, batch controllers, and over-spill detectors.