The $360 million China-funded Hambantota Port in the south of Sri Lanka will begin bunkering operations when it opens on November 18, an official from Sri Lanka Port Authority said Friday. SLPA director Prasanna Kalutarage said the port will begin bunkering operations on November 18 but was unable to say who will be supplying bunker fuel at the port as SLPA has yet to issue a tender for this. Earlier this month, chief engineer for the Hambantota Port project Janaka Kurukulasuriya said SLPA is set to start work on the construction of the island nation's second onshore oil terminal at the port. The 83,000 mt tank farm is part of the Hambantota Port project, which envisages developing the port in two phases to handle up to 20 million containers/year upon completion.
The tank farm will include two 10,000 mt tanks, which will hold a combined 20,000 mt of aviation fuel and three tanks to store 7,000 mt of LPG. The rest of the tank farm will include tanks of various sizes, which will hold a total of over 55,000 mt of bunker fuel. Currently, the only onshore bunker fuel terminal in the country at Port Colombo consists of 12 tanks that can hold a combined 33,000 mt of bunker fuel, and the SLPA has allocated the storage space equally among the island nation's eight licensed bunker suppliers. In a key speech delivered at the Sri Lanka Economic Summit-2010 Thursday, the country's secretary of defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa said developments in its harbour system will augur well for the country's international trade in the future. "The Hambantota Port will initially provide refuelling and bunkering services for the ships crossing the busy sea route just a few nautical miles south of Sri Lanka," Rajapaksa said. He added there will be many opportunities to develop various port centred businesses at the port including shipbuilding, ship repairing and bunkering. In addition to Hambantota, the government has already begun to expand the harbour facilities in Colombo and hope to develop ports like Oluvil,
Trincomalee and Kankasanturai for port-related businesses. Construction of the Hambantota port, 85% financed by a soft loan provided by the Chinese government, began in early 2008 and the first phase was estimated to take 39 months. It has been reported that SLPA has signed a contract with Chinese firm, China Harbour Engineering Company, to start construction of the second phase in November 2010.
The tank farm will include two 10,000 mt tanks, which will hold a combined 20,000 mt of aviation fuel and three tanks to store 7,000 mt of LPG. The rest of the tank farm will include tanks of various sizes, which will hold a total of over 55,000 mt of bunker fuel. Currently, the only onshore bunker fuel terminal in the country at Port Colombo consists of 12 tanks that can hold a combined 33,000 mt of bunker fuel, and the SLPA has allocated the storage space equally among the island nation's eight licensed bunker suppliers. In a key speech delivered at the Sri Lanka Economic Summit-2010 Thursday, the country's secretary of defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa said developments in its harbour system will augur well for the country's international trade in the future. "The Hambantota Port will initially provide refuelling and bunkering services for the ships crossing the busy sea route just a few nautical miles south of Sri Lanka," Rajapaksa said. He added there will be many opportunities to develop various port centred businesses at the port including shipbuilding, ship repairing and bunkering. In addition to Hambantota, the government has already begun to expand the harbour facilities in Colombo and hope to develop ports like Oluvil,
Trincomalee and Kankasanturai for port-related businesses. Construction of the Hambantota port, 85% financed by a soft loan provided by the Chinese government, began in early 2008 and the first phase was estimated to take 39 months. It has been reported that SLPA has signed a contract with Chinese firm, China Harbour Engineering Company, to start construction of the second phase in November 2010.