Mid sea oil discharge facility averts fuel crisis

“Otherwise it would have sunk like a stricken ship’

by Suresh Perera

Sri Lanka has averted a major fuel crisis by overhauling the Single Point Buoy Mooring (SPBM), which was virtually crumbling as it had not been refurbished since being installed in 2010.

It would have spelled disaster if this offshore facility had collapsed as it’s the key link that handles the transfer of liquid cargo from oil tankers to the Muthurajawala oil tank farm, which meets 60% of the country’s demand for petrol, diesel and jet fuel, a senior official said.

The grueling overhaul, described as a “remarkable feat” by Sri Lankan engineers and technical officers, was completed without any costly foreign expertise, which translated into a substantial additional foreign exchange saving for the country, he stressed.

Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminal Limited (CPSTL) engineers and technical experts handled the complicated dismantling and re-installation of the SPBM, while Colombo Dockyard undertook the refurbishing.

The SPBM was originally imported from the US at a cost of US$ 10 million and installed in 2010. Though the offshore facility has to be serviced every five years due to exposure to salty sea water, it was not done in 2015 due to the apathy of a senior official during the previous government, he asserted.

A SPBM is difficult to procure in a hurry despite its enormous cost as it takes one year to be fabricated and delivered, he explained.

Engineers who earlier inspected the offshore facility found it in a virtual state of collapse with the 39 anodes, each weighing 75 kilos, dissolved and the iron fittings heavily corroded, the senior official said.

“If we had not got down to the overhaul job, it would have sunk like a stricken ship within six months”, he remarked.

He said that if the offshore buoy had crashed, Sri Lanka would have been able to stock only half of the country’s fuel requirements as it takes four to five days to unload an oil tanker for storage at the Kolonnawa terminal.

Though the overhaul was estimated to cost Rs. 500 million, the job was completed by local engineering experts for Rs. 425 million despite the spike in the US dollar, he noted.

If not for the callous indifference of a “square peg in a round hole” overseeing operations in 2015, the damage to the facility would not have been so extensive as what should have been attended to in five years was neglected and allowed to drag on for a decade, the official opined.

He said that it was due to the intervention of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila and CPSTL Chairman M. Uvais Mohamed that the country was able to prevent a grave fuel crisis.