Until some years back, two oil terminals in Karachi - Karachi Port Trust (KPT) and Fauji Oil Terminal (Fotco) — handled all of Pakistan’s oil imports. Crude oil and petrol were handled at Karachi Port’s Keamari Terminal while diesel, furnace oil, and some petrol imports were handled at Fotco, which is located at Port Qasim.
However, these ports often experienced severe congestion and the infrastructure came under great pressure. The importers of crude oil and oil products faced a tough situation and incurred severe economic losses. Carriers had to wait for long periods to be unloaded and the heavy demurrages imposed on them were transferred to consumers and sometimes even threatened the oil supply chain.
Setting up Cnergyico’s (formerly Byco Petroleum) Single Point Mooring Facility in 2012 - the first and only one in Pakistan - solved port congestion problems to a great extent.
An SPM is an open sea anchorage with sub-sea and subsoil pipelines connecting it to on-shore facilities. The Cnergyico SPM facility has revolutionized the handling of imported crude oil and other petroleum products.
Cnergyico’s Single Point Mooring (SPM) and Pipeline Project started in 2010. The project was commissioned in 2012 as the first-ever SPM facility in Pakistan. In December of that year, the first oil tanker berthed at the newly-established deep-sea SPM.
The SPM is the only floating liquid port in the country, allowing Cnergyico to import both crude oil and refined petroleum products directly. The SPM gives a great advantage to not just Cnergyico but also the broader oil sector. At a time when the other two key oil-importing ports face extreme congestion due to increased port operations, Cnergyico’s SPM gives a strategic advantage to the economy.
The SPM is located in the deep sea, at a distance of approximately 15 km from Mouza Kund in Balochistan. The floating jetty is connected to a crude oil tank farm of approximately 130,000 metric tons, via 3.3 km on-shore and 11.5 km off-shore 28-inch pipelines.
The SPM can handle vessels of 100,000 deadweight tonnage and has the capacity to add more pipelines. It also can handle Very Large Crude Carriers (“VLCC”s) of up to 250,000 DWT since large oil carriers do not have to enter constricted port channels.
Supertankers can now deliver oil and refined oil products at 25 meters depth. This is what enabled Cnergyico to cater to the largest ever shipment of crude oil in 2017; a record 102,000 metric tons of crude - the largest ever in the nation’s history - was received through its SPM.
Cnergyico is Pakistan’s largest oil refining company with the total throughput capacity of 156,000 BPD.
It produces a wide range of petroleum products, including motor gasoline and high-speed diesel. The company is modernizing its oil refining complex. It will install 15 new state-of-the-art plants that will increase production of high-value and more environmentally friendly Euro-V grade fuels.
Recently, Cnergyico’s Board of Directors approved the acquisition of 57.37% shares of Puma Energy.
This will increase Cnergyico’s oil marketing business significantly. With 982 retail outlets, Cnergyico will become the nation’s largest private-sector OMC. Additionally, the acquisition will enhance Cnergyico’s storage capacity of petroleum products by 10,500 MT, further cementing its position as one of Pakistan’s largest energy infrastructure firms.