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Santanu Sanyal

In its desperate bid to attract VLCCs for handling transhipment crude, VPT has reduced the rates substantially, so much so that the rates are now cheaper than those at the Kakinada port under private ownership.

KOLKATA, April 16

THE Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT) is set to handle a VLCC (very large crude carrier) for transhipment purposes after a gap of nearly two years.

``New Sirkasia'', a VLCC carrying more than 2.75 lakh tonnes of Nigerian crude, is expected shortly at the port for discharging the entire consignment by way of ship-to-ship transfer. Shipping Corporation of India has lined up five of its vessels and VPT two of its tugs to facilitate the operation.

It might be noted that, in its desperate bid to attract VLCCs for handling transhipment crude, VPT has reduced the rates substantially, so much so that the rates are now cheaper than those at the Kakinada port under private ownership. This is because in 2002-03, VPT did not get any VLCC for transhipment purposes but Kakinada did and thus handled nearly two million tonnes by way of the same ship-to-ship discharge. As a result, VPT lost substantial transhipment crude traffic during the year.

Despite ``rationalisation'' of the rates, VPT is not sure, if Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the importer of crude, will prefer Visakhapatnam port to Kakinada. ``It all depends on IOC'', says a spokesman for VPT, adding, ``IOC continues to nominate vessels for Kakinada although our rates are lower''.

For the same reason, VPT is unable to give any firm indication of the number of VLCCs it might handle in the current fiscal. ``We can handle any number of VLCCs but IOC has to decide'', he adds.

Inquiries with IOC reveal that much will depend on the type of crude it chooses to import. If IOC imports high-sulphur crude from West Asia — most West Asian crude is high-sulphur crude — then Kakinada might be the preferred port. This is because CPCL, now under IOC, generally processes high-sulphur crude and Kakinada is closer to CPCL refinery than Visakhapatnam. Also, one-third of the load discharged from the mother vessel at Kakinada is to be sent to Haldia by daughter vessels.

A spokesman for VPT points out that the distance between Kakinada and Haldia is more than that between Visakhapatnam and Haldia. This means that crude unloaded at Kakinada by way of transhipment will take longer steaming time to reach Haldia than from Visakhapatnam.

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