Arya plans repair base at Bhavnagar
Mumbai-based Arya Offshore and GSPC want to develop Bhavnagar port in Gujarat as a repair and supply base for oil companies operating in the western offshore.
PETROWATCH learns GSPC and Arya have applied to Gujarat authorities to repair the port’s 50-year old lock gate, used to control water levels, following a joint fact-finding mission to the port last month. Bhavnagar port is hardly used as it is heavily silted due to the faulty lock gate, which if repaired would allow the port to maintain a draft of 5.5 metres, unlike the present draft of barely four metres.
This in turn would allow heavy vessels to enter carrying oil and gas equipment. GSPC and Arya signed a MoU in January 2007 to transform Bhavnagar into a service port for oil companies working in the Gulf of Cambay and Mumbai Offshore, many of whom use Dubai.
Exact details of what GSPC and Arya propose at Bhavnagar are unclear, but first indications are that the facility will also service rigs.