SWECO wins major oil storage contract in India

SWECO has been chosen to provide expert advice in connection with the planning, design and construction of an underground facility for storage of crude oil in the city of Visakhapatnam on the east coast of India. The contract is worth approximately EUR 3.3 million and will be carried out in collaboration with SKANSKA Teknik and MIDROC Engineering.

Together with the client, Engineers of India Limited (EIL), SWECO will develop a conceptual design, prepare documents for procurement of contractors and perform contractor management during the construction phase. The facility will contain over 1 million cubic metre of crude oil and marks the start of a large-scale programme covering three facilities with a combined storage volume of more than 5 million cubic metre.

”This contract is quite an achievement for us. Above all, it was our longstanding Nordic experience in advanced technology for storage of crude oil in caverns balanced by ground water pressure that enabled our expert team to win the contract in tough competition with consulting groups from countries like France, Austria, the USA,” says Mats Påhlsson, Managing Director of SWECO VBB.

Work will begin immediately and is expected to be completed in 2010. Experts from Sweden, Norway and Finland will participate in the project. The planning, design and procurement phase will be conducted partly from SWECO’s office in Stockholm and partly from EIL’s office in New Delhi, after which a fixed organisation will be set up on the construction site in Visakhapatnam.