Offshore handling: Pakistan’s only single point mooring completes first year

The company has laid a 15km pipeline at the seabed from the SPM to pump crude oil to its refinery. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: 

In a major positive development, Pakistan has successfully joined the club of countries with single point mooring (SPM) facilities in the deep sea to transport crude oil through a pipeline to the refineries set up along the coast.

Byco has completed the first year of successful SPM operations, which can save millions of dollars in demurrages due to quick disposal of imported crude oil.

During a visit on Wednesday to the SPM facility set up by Byco refinery, representatives of the company told journalists that the company had laid a 15km pipeline at the seabed from the SPM to pump crude oil to its refinery.

“We celebrate the completion of the first year of successful SPM operations. The first vessel, MT Arietis, was moored to the SPM on December 26, 2012 with a cargo of 67,146 tons,” Imran Farooki, CEO of Byco Terminals Pakistan Limited (BTPL) told the journalists.

“The SPM’s single largest cargo to date came on vessel MT Quetta with a quantity of 79,000 tons. Thanks to the entire Byco Terminals Pakistan team for their untiring efforts in making this project a success,” he said.

Farooki said the SPM was expected to start commercial operations in January as a Turkish-based firm had given certification to tackle the issues arising out of an oil spill. The certificate has been submitted to the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra).

The media people were taken to the Arabian Sea where an oil vessel was anchored about 65 km offshore, with 65,000 tons of crude oil, near the floating buoy.

The oil was being transported from the oil vessel to Byco’s oil refining complex established at the shores in Hub, Balochistan through a 28-inch pipeline, 26 metres under the sea.

Crude oil procurement head Syed Rizwan Ali Gillani gave a comprehensive briefing about this unique technology for import and export of petroleum products without getting huge oil vessels anchored at the port.

He said the SPM was not a new technology as many other countries were using it. However, this is the first such facility in Pakistan.

In reply to a question, he said the location of the SPM would curtail the distance from Middle Eastern ports by 100 nautical miles per trip, leading to further savings in freight cost.

This has been introduced for the first time in Pakistan not by a public sector refinery, but purely by private sector’s refinery Byco without involvement of guarantees.

The pumping capacity of the SPM is more than 2,000 tons per hour. “SPM is an all-weather facility, which is the cheapest entry point for liquid cargo into Pakistan,” he said, adding the SPM is equipped with night navigation facility.

Byco refinery is currently refining 35,000 tons of crude oil a day. When its new refinery starts commercial operation, its refining capacity will increase to 155,000 tons per day, more than the capacity of Parco, which stands at 90,000 tons per day