ONGC on course for SBM at Hazira
ONGC has accelerated work to install a Single Buoy Mooring (SBM) at Hazira to export naphtha by tanker after being chastened by Gujarat maritime officials for relying on a nearby Reliance facility.
We learn ONGC chief engineer AK Raina has informed the Gujarat Maritime Board that the SBM will be in place by October 2010. This is the first time since 2006, when ONGC first sought approval for its own SBM at Hazira, that a deadline has been set.
“At least ONGC has set a deadline for the first time,†says a Gujarat official. ONGC has been taking GMB permission every year to use Reliance’s Hazira SBM to export naphtha extracted from Bassein gas.
Mumbai-based Offshore Design Group is ONGC’s consultant to the SBM project for which soil investigation studies were completed in January this year. Initial estimates show the project will cost around Rs180cr ($40m).
ONGC is likely to install a SBM to handle tankers up to 50,000-dead-weight tonnes.