Lanka IOC invests US $ 11 m in China Bay tank farm since 2002
Lanka IOC invested USD 11 m in China Bay tank farm during past decade
since taking over operations of the China Bay tank farm ten years ago in
2002.Lanka IOC has made significant investments in developing the tank
farm, while plans are also underway to makeTrincomalee an important
industrial site.
Lanka IOC PLC Managing Director, K. R. Suresh Kumar said, “Over the
past ten years, since 2002, we have made a total investment of nearly
USD 11.2 million in the China Bay tank farm.
This covers a gamut of areas such as improving facilities for fuel
handling and operations, modernising old storage tanks and building new
ones, strengthening the jetty.”
Outlining the improvements Kumar said, “Lanka IOC invested about USD
5.62 million since 2002 to improve fuel handling and such operations.
China Bay tank farm |
Two new storage tanks of 5,500 kilolitres each were constructed along
with a new pump house and bowser loading gantry at the lower tank farm
area. Firefighting facilities with modern hydrants, monitors, sprinklers
and foam system were also installed to fight any fire hazards. Since
existing pipelines were old and not usable, five new pipelines were also
laid from the jetty to the storage tanks”.
Lanka IOC has constructed a state-of-the-art lube blending plant of
18,000 MTPA capacity at a cost of USD 5.0 million to manufacture high
quality servo lubricants in Sri Lanka.
Among the facilities are eight base oil tanks, filling machines for
drums and small packs, base oil pipeline from the jetty, pump house and
a modern laboratory to check the quality of lubricants and petroleum
fuels.“Since the jetty structure was old and corroded, Lanka IOC
strengthened the jetty at a cost of USD 0.35 million.
In addition to this were attendant civil works such as roads,
boundary walls and living quarters.
During the past decade Lanka IOC also modernized the two existing
storage tanks at a cost of USD 0.24 million by providing a special
floating roof structure so that they can store volatile petroleum
products with less evaporation,” Kumar added.
Plans are also underway to utilise the storage tanks in the upper
tank farm area. Lanka IOC has already conducted a survey of the storage
tanks by engineering consultants while detailed estimates have also been
done based on which further investments are planned.
The China Bay tank farm, of World War II vintage, is of historic and
strategic significance in this part of the world. It is the largest tank
farm located between the Middle East and Singapore. |