IOC’s Sankari terminal set for expansion

SALEM: An emergency safety drill to avert fire and other types of accidents and how to handle any unexpected incident was held at the IndianOil’s Sankari terminal near Salem. Indian Oil is India’s largest commercial enterprise and is in the Fortune 500 Global listing, straddling the entire hydrocarbon value chain.

Mr R Chidambaram, general manager (corporate communications), Southern region, IndianOil, J Bharath Kumar, chief terminal manager, Sankari terminal, and C Appandirajan, senior manager, Salem divisional office, told reporters here on Friday that the company’s Operations Group of the Marketing Division handles primary and secondary logistics of moving petroleum products from refineries to terminals like Sankari, for storage and then on to retail outlets and direct customers. The company operaties over 150 petroleum storage terminals across the country.

They said in Tamil Nadu, IndianOil Operates Terminals in Chennai (Korukkupet, Tondiarpet, Foreshore- Royapuram), Sankari (Salem), Madurai, Tiruchy and Coimbatore.  Sankari Terminal, near Salem spread over an area of 67 acres was commissioned in the year 1993.

Sankari Terminal - Storage Infrastructure

Total Storage capacity of petroleum products in Sankari terminal is over 63,000 KL stored across 16 tanks with petrol storage of over 16,000 KL, diesel storage of about 30,000 KL, kerosene Capacity of about 6,000 KL and Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) capacity of about 11,000 KL.

Additional Diesel storage facility of 22,000 KL is being added to the terminal for which application has been made to Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board for regulatory clearances. As per Government’s eco-friendly regulation, ten per cent of ethanol online blending is being carried out in petrol before delivery from terminal.  Also 2000 kl of additional storage facility for bio-diesel will be added to the terminal.

They said Sankari terminal supplies petroleum products through an extensive fleet of 400 Tank Trucks (TTs) every day. Dedicated TTs with EPI coating are exclusively used for aviation fuel supplies to Madurai, Tiruchy, Coimbatore, Sulur and Toothukudi airports. The terminal is approved by DGCA (Director General of Civil Aviation) for handling aviation fuels.  PDS Kerosene is supplied to the distribution points through TTs from the terminal.

The product input for the Sankari terminal is primarily through IndianOil’s Chennai-Tiruchy-Madurai Pipeline (CTMPL), which originates from CPCL Manali Refinery at Chennai. CTMPL Pipeline has a Tap-off Point at Asanur from where a 12” Inch pipeline branches off to Sankari terminal, supplying all the petroleum products.

From the Sankari Terminal, petroleum products are supplied to over 700 IndianOil Petrol pumps, 160 consumer pumps and over 50 PDS kerosene supply points across the districts of Salem, Erode, Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Namakkal, Karur, Tiruppur, Vellore and Tiruvannamalai. During the last financial year Sankari terminal supplied over 15,00,000 KL of products to the markets.

They further said Sankari terminal is a ‘Smart Terminal’ with state-of-art automation which ensures improved efficiency, speedier operations, enhanced operational safety and superior fuel quality, unhampered by human Intervention / errors.

 All safety related facilities in the terminal are in compliance with MB Lal Committee guidelines. These are effectively integrated into terminal automation system. Sankari Terminal stores over 5000 KL of water in four tanks to fight fire.

 For sustaining its accident-free safety record and strict adherence to safe operating practices Sankari Terminal has been awarded with the esteemed British Safety Council Award with distinction, they added. It also has a 100 KW solar plant to meet its own power requirements.