US$ 76 m tank farm will have marine, aviation fuels, LPG:

Magampura ready for bunkering end October

Ravi LADDUWAHETTY

The Ruhunu Magampura sea port at Hambantota will be ready for bunkering end October.

The US $ 76 million tank farm is nearing completion and the contractor- Han Quin Engineering Construction Engineering Company of China will hand over the project end October and will be open for bunkering, Sri Lanka Ports Authority Chairman Dr Priyath Wickrema told Daily News Business yesterday. It will have 80,000 cubic metres of storage capacity for marine oils for ships also aviation oil and Liquid Petroleum Gas.

Sri Lanka Ports Authority’s Chief Engineer Agil Hewageeganage said there was a total of fourteen tanks in the farm which accounted for the 80,000 cubic meters.

Eight tanks will be used for storage of bunkering oils for ships which will have a total of 51,000 cubic metres. Three tanks will account for 23,000 cubic metres of aviation oils and the remaining three tanks which account for 6000 cubic metres will be for Liquid Petroleum Gas.

The storage tanks for aviation oils will be for the Mattala International Airport, where the imported fuels would be cleared at the sea port, pumped into the tanks and transported by road. The decision to have LPG tanks would also be for import of it and storing where the LPG suppliers could get the product stored there and bottled into the tanks for the local market, making it a cost saving exercise.

The facility also has the infrastructure to provide deep sea bunkering facilities which means that the barges would be filled and the ships refuelled mid sea. “This service could also be offered for ships which do not want to navigate to the Hambantota port,” he said.

East bound ships, fuelling in full in Dubai and West bound vessels which were fuelling in full in Singapore, now have the option of fuelling in half and fuelling midway at Hambantota while having the rest of the space for carrying other cargoes.

One of the major areas that were yet to be completed was fire fighting in the jetties.

The systems for protection from fire has already been completed in tank farm areas but the systems in the jetty areas had not been included in the contract with the Chinese company and that too will be addressed soon prior to the completion of the project late October, the Chief Engineer said.