The proposed location of SPM is at a distance of 11 km off the Vadinar coast in Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) administrative territorial waters. It will be a catenary anchor leg mooring (CALM) buoy type which will receive crude from very large crude carriers (VLCCs) of upto 2,73,000 DWT (dead weight tonnage).

CALM, presently the most popular system globally, exists in several locations in India. It also consists of pipeline end manifold(PLEM) together with associated offshore/onshore pipelines, remote-operated sectionalising valves, cathodic protections and other services. The crude will be received at a crude oil terminal (COT) through a 17 km long subsea/onshore pipelines.

The COT is being located 200 metres way from the Indian Oil Corporation's crude storage terminal at Vadinar. Around 400 acres have been acquired for this facility.

The COT would include crude tanks, pumps and equipment, control rooms, utilities, fire and safety system, office building, supporting infrastructure like effluent treatment, communication system between SPM/COT/refinery, cathodic protection and other facilities. Both the SPM/COT sites are ideal locations adjacent to the IOC structures at Vadinar. Calm sea conditions prevail during most part of the year for safe operations of crude unloading. No dredging is required and the 32-metre depth is ideal for VLCCs.

With all these advantages, experts say the SPM's location cannot be changed as this wouldotherwise affect the very operations of Bina refinery. The entire project was prepared keeping this in mind and hence speedy clearance from the Gujarat government is essential to keep operations viable.

The transportation of crude oil would be through a cross country pipeline running from the COT to the refinery complex in Bina. The pipeline would be approximately 940 kilometres long and will include intermediate pump stations, utilities, offsites and supporting infrastructure at each pump station.

The Bina refinery will be supported by three lined projects - a marketing terminal being set up by BPCL to distribute the refinery's products; a power project based on residual fuel supplied by the refinery being set up by a Hindustan Development Corporation-promoted company, which will supply power and steam to the refinery; and a product pipeline from Bina to Kanpur via Jhansi being laid down by Petronet India, to evacuate part of the production economically to the northern region.

The Madhya Pradesh sitehas many locational advantages, say experts. It is surrounded by high consumption zones/demand centres of petroleum products. Considering that a substantial portion of future demand of products will be met from imported sources, the refinery will enjoy the freight advantage over transporting products from coastal locations. Transportation of products would need different pipelines for different products whereas it would be cost-effective to carry crude and refine it near the demand region.

The site is well connected by rail/road network and is not near any environmentally sensitive areas such as forests, wild life sanctuaries and national monuments. The source of water is the Betwa river which is five kilometres from the site.