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.
A sketch of the bunkering facility |
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.
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