US-bound ship hits Bharat Petroleum crude import facility

JAMNAGAR : A US-bound vessel from Sikka Port in Gujarat accidentally hit a Bharat Petroleum Corp’s (BPCL) crude import facility late on Sunday, two sources told on Monday. The extent of the damage was not known, they said.

The ship was carrying gasoline-blending fuel (alkylate) for Reliance Industries from a refinery in Gujarat’s Jamnagar, sources added.

“It appears to have hit the peripheral structure of the single-point mooring (SPM),” one of the sources told Reuters. The source added that no vessel was currently scheduled to discharge at its SPM.

The BPCL has a single-point mooring at Sikka to import crude for its landlocked Bina oil refinery in Madhya Pradesh.

Both BPCL and Reliance Industries did not give comments at the time of writing this story. The sources did not want to identify themselves as they were not authorised to speak publicly about the issue.