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India’s Kochi port has shortlisted five companies to develop its bunker terminal on a design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis.

The shortlisted firms are: Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd/ Kochi Refinery, Mundra Port and Special Economic Zone, IOT Infrastructure and Energy Services, Gammon Infrastructure Projects Ltd., and IMC Ltd.

The new facility will have a total capacity of 4.10 million tonnes per year, with bunker fuel and petroleum, oil, and lubricant (POL) products accounting for 3.42 million tonnes and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) totalling 0.68 million tonnes.

The terminal, which is expected to be commissioned in the third quarter of 2013, will be located adjacent to the LPG storage facility currently being built by Indian Oil Corporation. It will include a 120-metre barge loading facility and 40,000 kilolitres of storage.

Construction of the new complex will be on 2.5 hectares of land in the Puthuvypeen Special Economic Zone and 19 hectares of water area.

The port is also set to make a further six hectares of land available for additional storage facilities, according to local sources.

Agencies other than the concessionaire will be allowed to import marine fuels and other oil product cargoes for storage and given permission to lift bunker fuels from the terminal.

Port officials are looking to leverage Kochi's strategic location as one of the world's busiest routes for it to become a leading bunkering hub.

The port already includes a refinery, which is operated by Bharat Petroleum Corporation, India's largest ship building facility at Cochin Shipyard and a low VAT rate of 0.5 per cent on the sale of marine fuel and lubricants to foreign vessels.