February 16, 2003	Sunday	Zul Hijjah 14, 1423

KARACHI, Feb 15: ‘High alert’ and preference being given to quick and rapid unloading of POL products on fear of Iraq war has hit the molasses exports, official sources have said.

The ministry of communication has issued orders to port authorities that the activities of oil tankers bringing in POL products should not be hindered for want of berths (oil piers), sources said.

The need to adopt such a strategy is being reckoned because of limited storage capacity for petroleum products which presently only fulfils 22 days demand of the country. Therefore, in order to maintain this capacity at brink special care is being taken to ensure rapid clearance of oil tankers at the port.

However, a spokesman of Terminal Association of Pakistan (TAP) Akhtar Sultan told Dawn that these directives are damaging for the country’s exports, which can be gauged from the fact that vessels seeking berths for loading molasses are unable to get berth on time.

The situation has aggravated after the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) issued a final notice for decommissioning of OP-II (oil pier) for refurbishment and the pier would close from March 15.

The peak season for export of molasses is December to May, as the sugar mills throughout the country operate at their capacity and produce huge quantities of molasses. Almost entire quantity of molasses is exported.

The OP-I was always dedicated to unloading of POL products only and the modern and upgraded OP-III having deeper draught was being shared by vessels for loading molasses as well as for unloading of POL imports.

However, the Iraq crisis has put government under tremendous pressure to maintain their storage capacity filled at maximum level in order to meet any unforeseeable situation which may develop in case of breaking out of war which may disrupt oil supplies.

Nevertheless, as an alternate arrangements the port authorities have asked the molasses exporters to use DB-I (dry berth) at East Wharf where two pipelines have been laid down under a joint venture between the KPT and TAP.

But there is a drawback at DB-I where draught is limited and it can only accommodate vessels having load of up to 35,000 tons and for higher load the vessel has to be shifted to OP-III where the draught is deeper and up to 60,000 tons could be loaded.

Recently a tanker was accommodated at DB-I for molasses and after loading up to 35,000 tons it had to be shifted to OP-II to meet the required draught for higher load. As a result of this the loading was delayed for a couple of days which may have incurred demurrage, TAP spokesman said.

Since it is a peak season for export of molasses the arrival of tankers for loading cargo is frequent and at a time several vessels report at the Karachi port, he added. On an average two to three days are needed to load 35,000 tons of molasses.

Giving details about the arrival of vessels the TAP spokesman said during next two days three tankers are due for loading around 75,000 tons of molasses. He further said that a tanker to load 29,000 tons is due on Saturday (Feb 15) and two other tankers to load 29,500 tons and 16,000 tons are due on Feb 16.

Looking at the developing situation, he said the government should immediately allow the use of OP-III for loading of molasses as no nation could afford to damage or disturb its exports.