Indian Oil JV eyes Mumbai, Delhi airports for fuel deals
Kolkata   19-Aug-2008
IndianOil Sky tanking (IOSL), a consortium of IndianOil, Indian Oil tanking and Germany's Sky tanking, is eyeing Delhi, Mumbai airport modernisation projects for expansion of aviation fuel storage systems. The company, which has successfully commissioned the 'open access' fuel storage system for the first time in the country at Bengaluru International Airport, has submitted its expression of interest (EoI) for the projects. Currently, IndianOil, HPCL and BPCL are providing fuel storage services at Mumbai and Delhi airports. According to R Ravi Kumar, CEO, IOSL, the company is the first fuel farm operator in the country to carry out single-man refuelling at any airport. "For the first time in India, we have proved that single-man refuelling can be done. We have showed that at Bengaluru International airport. We are now looking at all the 15 locations, where Airports Authority of India (AAI) is planning to develop airports, to expand our business," he said. IOSL has set up its fuel farm project spread over 11 acres at a cost of Rs 105 crore at Bengaluru International Airport. It has set up three oil tanks with a combined capacity of 10,000 kilolitres in the first phase. The fuel farm is a common fuel storage shared by all the oil companies. At present, state-owned oil companies such as Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and IndianOil are using the fuel storage and IOSL is refuelling on their behalf. While, the oil companies store their fuel here, IOSL and Bharat Star Services, a joint venture between BPCL and Star Services of Singapore, are carrying out the refuelling and defuelling operations. Ravi Kumar said following the successful operation of the open access system, private sector oil companies have come forward to use the facility. "We have just signed agreements with Shell, MRPL and Reliance for using our open access fuel storage system. They are likely to start their operations at Bengaluru very shortly," he said. Single-man refuelling system helps the company save around Rs 2-3 crore per year compared to the traditional method. IOSL targeting to clock a revenue of Rs 35-40 crore in the current financial year. The company also plans to erect additional fuel tanks at Bengaluru airport to coincide with the expansion of the airport.