IndianOil Skytanking, a consortium of Indian Oil Corporation, Indian Oiltanking and Germany's Skytanking, is eyeing Delhi, Mumbai airport modernisation projects for expansion of aviation fuel storage systems.
The company, which has successfully commissioned the 'open access' fuel storage system for the first time in the country at Bangalore International Airport, has submitted its expression of interest for the projects.
Currently, IOC, HPCL and BPCL are providing fuel storage services at Mumbai and Delhi airports.
According to R Ravi Kumar, CEO, IOSL, the company is the first fuel farm operator in the country to carry out single-man refuelling at any airport.
"For the first time in India, we have proved that single-man refuelling can be done. We have showed that at Bangalore International airport. We are now looking at all the 15 locations, where Airports Authority of India plans to develop airports, to expand our business," he said.
IOSL has set up its fuel farm project spread over 11 acres at a cost of Rs 105 crore (Rs 1.05 billion) at Bangalore International Airport.
It has set up three oil tanks with a combined capacity of 10,000 kilo litres in the first phase. The fuel farm is a common fuel storage shared by all the oil companies.
At present, state-owned oil companies such as Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Indian Oil Corporation are using the fuel storage and IOSL is refuelling on their behalf.
While, the oil companies store their fuel in India, IOSL and Bharat Star Services, a joint venture between BPCL and Star Services of Singapore, are carrying out the refuelling and defuelling operations.
Ravi Kumar said following the successful operation of the open access system, private sector oil companies have come forward to use the facility.
"We have just signed agreements with Shell, MRPL and Reliance for using our open access fuel storage system. They are likely to start their operations at Bangalore very shortly," he said.
Single-man refuelling system helps the company save around Rs 2-3 crore (Rs 20-30 million) per year compared to the traditional method. IOSL targetting to clock a revenue of Rs 35-40 crore (Rs 350-Rs 400 million) in the current financial year.
The company also plans to erect additional fuel tanks at Bangalore airport to coincide with the expansion of the airport.
It is also working out details of the expansion plan for the Bangalore airport, he added.
