Mangaluru: 500th vessel unloading done at single-point mooring station of MRPL

Mangaluru: The single-point mooring (SPM) station of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) has successfully reached a milestone by unloading 500 crude oil vessels.

MT Euroglory from Saudi Arabia with 1.35-million metric tonne (MMT) capacity which was unloaded on Monday at SPM has become the 500th vessel unloaded by MRPL, a press release from Rudolph Noronha, MRPL general manager (corporate communications), said here.

The SPM was inaugurated in August 2013 with Ratna Puja being the first vessel to be unloaded. Team MRPL has since unloaded 75.5-million metric tonne through 500 vessels in three different categories – Afra Max (below 1 lakh MT), Suez Max (1.5 lakh MT), and VLCC (very large crude carriers) up to 2.8 lakh MT.

The SPM of MRPL has unloaded vessels from countries like Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, and also the USA. The team has faced various challenges in achieving the feat.

Till 2012, MRPL unloaded crude only through smaller ships which were unloaded at Jetty 11 and 12 of NMPT (New Mangalore Port Trust). The smaller ships with less than 245-meter length and 14-meter draught (part of the ship within sea) only could be unloaded at the jetty. Now, the SPM station can attend to vessels with 330-meter length and with 22-meter draught, the release said.

MRPL managing director M Venkatesh congratulated the team on achieving the feat and thanked the teams from operations and maintenance and also the service provider Underwater Service Company Limited.