KOCHI: Having surrendered two of its security guards, Italian tanker Enrica Lexie also had to pay over Rs 40 lakh to the Cochin Port Trust as berth rent and other portrelated charges.The vessel, which was berthed at the Cochin Oil Terminal (COT) in the wee hours of Friday for investigation purposes, was shifted off-shore on Monday morning to make the tanker berth available to other ships.“The ship was shifted to the outer channel after it paid the charges amounting to Rs 40,18,000,” CPT traffic manager C Unnikrishnan told Express on Tuesday.He said the Italian shipping company did not object when the Port claimed the charges.“It is a global maritime practice. So, the payment of charges cannot be disputed.Besides, the company had engaged an agent here which is mandatory,” Unnikrishnan said.The unexpected arrival of Enrica Lexie to Kochi, after getting involved in the killing of two fishermen off the Kollam coast, had proved a headache for the CPT and the BPCL Kochi Refinery in finding a suitable berthing for scheduled arrivals. It was the oil company which literally bore the brunt of the dilemma.The ship was allotted berth at the COT by 2 a.m. last Friday by evacuating another tanker, Jag Prachi, which had berthed at the COT on Thursday evening.Jag Prachi was about to start pumping furnace oil to the BPCL-KRL when it was asked to go back to the outer channel and await further orders.Jag Prachi did not come back and left Kochi without unloading the cargo.However, another vessel Sanmar Serenade which arrived with auto fuel of Euro 4 standard to the refinery, had to wait till Monday morning for a berth. It was allowed entry after Enrica Lexie was shifted to the outer channel.The loss incurred to the BPCL, for making the vessel wait outside the Port for no fault of theirs, is approximately Rs 40 lakh a day by way of demurrage.Though Cochin Port has the facility to accommodate two tankers at a time, the main berth situated opposite the Ernakulam wharf can accommodate only one large tanker at a time.Enrica Lexie’s overall length is more than 200 metres and the Gross Register Tonnage (GRT) comes to nearly 50,000 tonnes.
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