Waiver of cargo charges for LPG and crude oil tankers bring more vessels to New Mangalore Port
MANGALURU : With the New Mangalore Port Authority (NMPA) waiving cargo charges for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and crude oil tankers to attract vessels for tiding over the situation caused by the geopolitical crisis in West Asia, more vessels are sailing into the port to discharge LPG and crude.
The NMPA has waived all cargo charges both for LPG and crude tankers after the conflict affected the supply of petroleum products to India, sources in NMPA said. For one lakh tonne crude, the cargo charges would come to about ₹34 lakh. Vessel-handling charges, however, would continue to be collected. The port had waived ₹47 lakh cargo charges for LPG Tanker Pyxis Pioneer that discharged 16,700 tonen of LPG on March 14.
NMPA sources said at least five confirmed arrivals and four promised arrivals of LPG tankers at New Mangalore was expected by March-end. Appollo Ocean with about 17,000 tonne of LPG began discharging the load on Thursday afternoon.
Al Ain, another LPG tanker that began its voyage from the King Fahad Industrial Port, Yanbu, Saudi Arabia on March 19, was expected to discharge 23,000 tonne of LPG for three PSU oil marketing companies on Friday. This was an unscheduled arrival, sources noted.
Meanwhile, LPG Tanker Pine Gas that left Ghantoot Port in the UAE on March 3 with 45,000 tonne of LPG was expected to discharge 25,000 tonne in New Mangalore Port this week. One more tanker was expected to discharge 25,000 tonne LPG on Friday or Saturday, sources said. Another tanker from the USA would bring 30,000 tonne of LPG for HPCL on March 30.
Meanwhile, an agent has promised to bring in four more LPG tankers to the port to avail the benefit of cargo charge waiver, sources said.
Continued crude arrivals
The Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. (MRPL) continues to receive the crude through its single point mooring (SPM), off Mangaluru coast. The company was expected to receive about 2.62 lakh tonne of crude in the next few days from West Africa and Saudi Arabia while it already received about 1.53 lakh tonne of crude oil. Tanker Swarna Krishna that received 48,669 tonne of crude from floating storage Armada Sterling would arrive NMP on March 27.
Oil Tanker Popi P, sailing under Marshall Islands flag that left Al Muajjiz Port located at Red Sea in Saudi Arabia on March 17 with 1.41 lakh tonne of crude would reach NMP on March 27. Another tanker Sunriseway sailing under the flag of Liberia that left Cap Lopez Pot in West Africa’s Gabon on March 6 with 1.21 lakh tonnes of Mandji crude was expected to arrive on March 29.