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UAE-headquartered Gulf Petrochem Group has begun supplying marine fuel at the Indian port of Pipavav, located on the west coast of India, in the state of Gujarat, a company source confirmed to Bunker Index today.

The news comes just over a year after the energy firm announced the commissioning of the first phase of its liquid cargo storage terminal at the Indian port.

Gulf Petrochem is offering 380 centistoke (cSt) intermediate fuel oil (IFO) and marine gas oil (MGO) to customers. Deliveries are currently being carried out by truck alongside vessels at berth, but the company is also awaiting approval from local authorities in order to begin supplying by barge, also at berth to begin with, the source confirmed.

Gulf Petrochem's storage terminal in Pipavav has an annual capacity of 248,400 cubic metres (cbm), which the company said last year would "further ease supply and availability of petroleum, non-petroleum and petrochemical cargo in the northern part of India".

The first-phase capacity of 110,000 kilolitres (KL) was followed by a second-phase capacity expansion of 140,000 KL last year.

The terminal has a total of 46 tanks with capacities ranging from 2,000 cbm to 10,000 cbm, with separate pipelines to the berth for white and black products.

The facility is able to handle a range of products, including fuel oil, bitumen, naphtha, crude oil, gasoil, methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), condensate, jet fuel, kerosene, base oil and petrochemicals.

Port Pipavav is managed and operated by APM Terminals, owned by A.P. Moller-Maersk Group. The port has annual traffic of around 3.5 million metric tonnes per annum.

Its existing liquid jetty is able to cater for vessels with a draft size of up to 11.5 metres and a length overall (LOA) of 220 metres.